Bulls Fighting

Solon Hannibal Borglum

1899–1900; cast 1906–07 · Bronze · The American Wing

Borglum began modeling "Bulls Fighting" during the summer of 1899 among the Crow Creek Sioux in South Dakota. The animals—one wild, with longer horns; the other domesticated and stouter—are depicted at the moment of impact, their perfectly counter-balanced forms graphically underlining the intensity of their struggle. Borglum’s group offers a symbolic comment on the decline of the Texas longhorn cattle population in the early twentieth century, when other, weightier breeds were developed that yielded more meat and were preferred by ranchers.

Artist

Solon Hannibal Borglum

Date

1899–1900; cast 1906–07

Medium

Bronze

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1907