Katharine Lane Weems

Katharine Lane Weems (February 22, 1899 - February 11, 1989) was an American sculptor famous for her reachable portrayals of animals.

Weems was born Katharine Ward Lane in Boston, the solitary child of Gardiner Martin and Emma Louise (Gildersleeve) Lane, and standard an elite education typical for rich women of her class. Her father was president of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston , and her grandfather was classicist Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve. She was named after her aunt, Katharine Ward Lane (d. 1893), who was a watercolorist. She studied art at the Boston Museum School under Charles Grafly and George Demetrios and also studied at the summer studios of Anna Hyatt Huntington. Like many girl artists of the period, Weems often faced spite because of her gender. However, she received maintain from two prominent female artists of the time: Huntington and Brenda Putnam, both of whom were involved in New York.

In 1926 she won two medals: a Bronze Medal at the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Exposition, and the George D. Widener Memorial Gold Medal from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1947 she married Carrington Weems and exhibited as Katharine Ward Lane as well as Katharine Lane Weems. She created the dolphins outside the New England Aquarium (Dolphins of the Sea, 1977), and the Lotta Fountain at the Boston Esplanade Plaza. She served as a member of the Massachusetts Arts Commission 1941-1947, and was elected to the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors in 1925 and to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1952. Several of her sculptures are held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Boston Athenaeum in the middle of others. Her papers are archived at Harvard University.