Golden Gate Park – Sphinx

Copies of Sphinx by Arthur Putnam – 1912

These sit to the right of the entry to the new de Young Museum. The plaque on them reads: This pair of concrete sphinxes replaces the original black granite sculptures commissioned from Arthur Putnam for the entrance to the Egyptian revival Fine Arts Building of the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894. At the fair’s end, this building served as the first incarnation of the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum. Sometime between 1905 and 1912, the granite sphinxes were removed. New concrete sphinxes based on Putnam’s initial plaster maquettes were placed at the site. The building was demolished in 1929, but the sphinxes remained. During the construction of the new de Young, the museum’s conservators repositioned the statues on new bases and restored them to their original appearance based on documentary photographs.

As far as the originals, they disappeared sometime after the 1906 earthquake. Stories abound about the fate of the originals, and even the original material. Some say they were granite, and others say they were bronze and melted down. Another memory is that one was stolen and the other destroyed. In any event, the current concrete pieces, similar in concept to the original ones, were created in 1903 and installed in 1928.

Original Sphinx and Dore Vase at the Egyptian revival Fine Arts Building for the California Midwinter International Exhibition

Arthur Putnam (September 6, 1873–1930) was an American sculptor from the turn of the 20th century who is recognized for his bronzes of wild animals and public monuments. He was a well-known Californian and enjoyed a national reputation as well. Putnam was regarded as an artistic genius in San Francisco and his life was chronicled in the San Francisco and East Bay newspapers.