Artwork: Walton Ford, Zürichsee, 2015 watercolor, gouache and ink on paper 41 ½ x 59 ¾ inches unframed, courtesy of Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York.
Picture it: Winter in Switzerland. The year was 1933. A black panther, held against her will inside the Zürich Zoo. Described as “Extremely timid,” she was had been captured in the will and brought in as the mate for a male already living in captivity. Within two weeks, injuries were discovered on her forepaw and right hind leg. On the morning of October 11, her cage was discovered empty.
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According to the investigation, the panther squeezed her body through a break in the roof bars and out of the building through a partly open slatted ventilator. The panther had vanished without a trace. In the traps set for her, a few half-wild dogs were caught. For nearly ten weeks, this great creature of the tropics alluded capture, surviving by her wits and instinct in a foreign and hostile environment.
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