The Buckhead-based Forward Arts Foundation has acquired and donated a new sculpture to the High Museum.
The sculpture donated was an 1888 Henry Church, Jr., piece entitled a “A Friend in Need Is a Friend Indeed.”
The Forward Arts Foundation, which is based at the Swan Coach House on the Atlanta History Center campus, made the gift in celebration of its 50th anniversary, according to a release.
Founded in 1965 by 12 Atlanta women, the Forward Arts Foundation promotes and supports the visual arts. Over the past half century, the Foundation has supported the acquisition of ten works in the High’s collection, including paintings by artists including Claude Monet, Mary Cassatt and Camille Pissarro.
The sculpture is Church’s best-known work and depicts a shepherd safeguarding a lamb from a lunging mountain lion, who is in turn being attacked by the shepherd’s dog, the release said.
“We are incredibly grateful to the Forward Arts Foundation for its generosity, which allows us to bring this one-of-a-kind work into our collection,” said Rand Suffolk, the director of the High. “We’re thrilled that this extraordinary object will remain at the High and inspire and excite generations of Atlantans to come,” Suffolk said in the release.
The piece will be featured in the reinstallation of the High’s folk and self-taught art collection galleries, set to debut in October this year. The High Museum is located in Midtown at 1280 Peachtree St.
This sculpture is the foundation’s first purchase for the High’s folk and self-taught art department, the release said.
For more information, visit forwardartsatlanta.org.