Katharine Lane Weems

Katharine Lane Weems (born Katharine Ward Lane, February 22, 1899 - 1989) was an American sculptor famous for her work in bronze, especially for her realistic portrayals of animals.

Weems was born in Boston, the only child of Gardiner Martin and Emma Louise (Gildersleeve) Lane, and received an elite education typical for wealthy 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 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 woman artists of the period, Weems often faced hostility because of her gender. However, she received support from two prominent female artists of the time: Huntington and Brenda Putnam, both of whom were working 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 six 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. Her papers are archived at Harvard University.