Of Hill-Stead’s eight bronze sculptures by animalier Antoine-Louis Barye (French, 1796 – 1875), seven depict cats—lion, panther, domestic house cat—the artist’s favorite subject. Though Barye created large public commissions for the Tuileries and elsewhere, he preferred working on a small scale and marketing these more modest bronzes to middle-class Parisians. American collectors, such as Alfred Pope, also favored these small works.

Also exhibited is Reclining Nude Figure, a small Plaster of Paris sculpture by A. Sterling Calder (American, 1870 – 1945). A marble portrait bust of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, which the Popes acquired in Rome in 1889, dates from c. 180 AD. A 19th-century bronze, Bull, believed to be 17th-century Spanish, and Seneca, a 19th-century bronze reproduction of a Roman bust, complete the Popes’ sculpture collection.