De Hirsh Margules, Mother Ann Lighthouse, Eastern Point, Gloucester, 1946. Gouache on paper. Gift of Jean M. Horblit, 2002. [Acc. #2002.004.002]
Gloucester Daily Times: Meow: Gargantuan cat installed at Cape Ann Museum
by Gail McCarthy | May 18, 2026
Tucked away in a corner of downtown Gloucester, a delicate operation took place in which an 8-foot bronze cat, weighing 1,200 pounds, was lifted from a flatbed truck more than three stories and lowered into the back courtyard of Cape Ann Museum.
The giant sculpture is an enlargement of an 18-inch cat by artist Katharine Lane Weems (1899–1989), called “Seated Cat (Sphinx),” modeled in 1941. This new commission of the enlarged work was created by Robert Shure of Skylight Studios in Woburn.
The museum has been closed for nearly 20 months as part of a major renovation project and will reopen on June 30.
The bronze feline arrived in town around 9:30 a.m. Friday, and gave many motorists a surprise that morning as they passed by this unexpected sight on Route 128 before it turned onto Washington Street from the rotary. It also drew attention as it was parked on Pleasant Street in front of the museum with some people posing for photos.
One of the stars of the operation was Mike Kolodka at the controls of the crane parked in the middle of the tiny one-way street, who brought the statue up over the roof of the museum to avoid the many power lines that run down the street.
Also on site was Shure, along with a team of other museum staff, to maneuver the sculpture onto a granite block, like landing a helicopter on the pad.
“Shure worked closely with Weems on many projects during the artist’s lifetime,” according to a press release. “The museum has invested more than $100,000 to enlarge the piece and fabricate it on a monumental scale, to honor Weems’ legacy as one of Cape Ann’s most significant sculptors of the 20th century.”
Weems was born into a wealthy Boston family who had a summer estate in Manchester-by-the-Sea, where the artist did much of her work, which most often features animals. A couple of her works are in the Boston area, one a bronze rhinoceros at Harvard University’s Biological Laboratories, commissioned in 1930, and the other a 12-foot-long group of dolphins that was installed at New England Aquarium in 1979.
According to the press release, the family estate in Manchester included the house, nicknamed “The Chimneys,” and an adjacent studio.
She studied with leading artists of the era.
“Between 1918 and 1919, Weems studied sculpture under Charles Grafly at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Grafly also spent time on Cape Ann was the preeminent portrait sculptor of the time. In addition to teaching Weems, Grafly provided instruction to Walker Hancock, George Demetrios, Paul Manship, and Amelia Peabody, among others,” according to her bio shared by Cape Ann Museum. “Through her work with fellow Cape Ann sculptor, Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington, Weems perfected the art of portraying animals in clay, a passion for which she was widely recognized.”
Her bio notes that one of her early successes was a 1927 bronze Narcisse Noir, now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which earned her a prestigious award of the Widener Gold Medal from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
To read the full article, click here.
