Artist: Robert Hyslop

Robert Hyslop’s Lady was originally a bronze maquette about 18 inches tall. In 2000, Fergus Falls metalworker Steve Jaenisch was commissioned to recreate Lady on a grander scale. The 8-foot Jaensich sculpture was installed outside the Waage Fine Arts Center.

Hyslop, business manager at the Fergus Falls Clinic, had a creative streak that led him to study art in Mexico and subsequently bring his skills with bronze home to his Fergus Falls art studio.

After the death of Robert’s wife, Katherine, college employees recall Hyslop would visit the college, take a lawn chair from the trunk of his car, and set it where he could sit and look at the sculpture. He never dreamed that anything so large would be made from one of his sculptures, he said.

She was most beautiful after a snowfall when the snow seemed to clothe her in a white fur coat. Lady was moved into the Waage Gallery when the fine arts center was joined to the other campus buildings.

Steve Jaenisch was a member of M State’s first graduating class in 1962 and a well-known Fergus Falls metalworker who also created sculptures that stand outside Otter Tail County Historical Society and the Fergus Falls Fire Department.