Pony Express Mail Carrier, 1860-1861
base: 2 x 19 1/2 x 11 in. (5.1 x 49.5 x 27.9 cm)
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
The Pony Express has loomed large in the American imagination, despite its short duration of only eighteen months from 1860 to 1861. Its riders have been featured widely in Western lore as emblematic of the American spirit of exploration and discovery. As an important postal advancement, the Pony Express was deemed appropriate for inclusion in the U.S. Postmaster General’s suite. Arthur Lee spent his career closely studying and sculpting the human figure, and so he chose to clad his Pony Express Mail Carrier (1860-1861) in a pair of tight-fitting buckskin leggings to show off the modeling of his physique. The figure is slightly smaller than the other aluminum mail carriers in the suite—an acknowledgement of the fact that no Pony Express rider weighed more than 120 pounds so as not to overtire the horses.
Arthur Lee immigrated to the United States from Norway in 1888 and studied at the Art Students League in New York City before spending five years at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Lee was an accomplished classical sculptor. He won a Gold Medal at the 1916 San Francisco World’s Fair and won the Widener Gold Medal at the Philadelphia Academy in 1924. Lee taught at the Art Students League until he opened his own drawing academy in 1931. Pony Express Mail Carrier is his only fully clothed figurative sculpture. Today, Lee’s artworks can be viewed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
