Felix de Weldon

Felix de Weldon
Felix Weihs de Weldon (April 12, 1907 – June 3, 2003) was an American sculptor. His most famous pieces include the United States Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial, 1954) in the Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, US, and the Malaysian National Monument (1966) in Kuala Lumpur.
Biography
Felix de Weldon was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, on April 12, 1907. He received his early education at St. Egichin's Grammar School. In 1925, he earned an AB from Marchetti College, a preparatory college. From the University of Vienna's Academy of Creative Arts and School of Architecture, he earned his M.A. and M.S. degrees in 1927 and his PhD in 1929.
De Weldon first received notice as a sculptor at the age of 17, with his statue of Austrian educator and diplomat Professor Ludo Hartman. In the 1920s, he joined artist's communes in France, Italy and Spain. De Weldon eventually moved to London, where he gained a number of commissions, among them a portrait sculpture of George V.
A consequential trip to Canada to sculpt Prime Minister Mackenzie King brought De Weldon to North America. He settled in the United States in 1937. De Weldon enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II and was discharged with the rank of Painter Second Class (PTR 2). He became a United States citizen in 1945.
In 1950, President Harry Truman appointed de Weldon to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. In 1956, he was re-appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower, and again in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy. In 1959, he received an honorary knighthood for his service to the British Crown.
In 1951, De Weldon acquired the historic Beacon Rock estate in Newport, Rhode Island, where he lived until 1996 when he lost the property and most of his assets to financial hardship.
De Weldon was a long time Member of the Arts Club of Washington.
Felix de Weldon died on June 3, 2003, at the age of 96, in Washington, D.C., and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. de Weldon is survived by his son Daniel DeWeldon. Daniel is collaborating with Barry Krost Management on bio-pic of his father's life.
Work
Approximately 1,200 de Weldon sculptures are located on seven countries. (A de Weldon monument of Richard Byrd is on McMurdo Sound, in Antarctica).
At the conclusion of the war in 1945, the Congress of the United States commissioned de Weldon to construct the statue for the Marine Corps War Memorial (called Iwo Jima Memorial) in the realist tradition, based upon the famous photograph of Joe Rosenthal, of the Associated Press agency, taken on February 23, 1945. De Weldon made sculptures from life of three (on June 23, 2016, John Bradley was not believed to be in the photo) of the six servicemen raising the replacement United States flag on Mount Suribachi, on Iwo Jima. The other three flag-raisers who were killed in action (on June 23, 2016, Harold Schultz was identified as a flag-raiser in the photo and was not KIA) later on the island were sculpted from photographs. De Weldon took nine years to make the memorial which was dedicated on November 10, 1954, and was assisted by hundreds of other sculptors. The result is the 100-ton bronze statue which is on display in Arlington, Virginia.
De Weldon also contributed in creating Malaysia's Tugu Negara (National Monument) when the country's first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman saw the Marine Corps War Memorial statue in his visit to America in October 1960 and personally met him for favour to design the monument. De Weldon was later conferred with the title Tan Sri, the Malaysian equivalent of a high-ranking knighthood.
Images
Partial list of public sculpture
1935 – King George V, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
1936 – King Edward VIII coronation bust, London, UK
1936 – King George VI coronation bust, London, UK
1938 – Prime Minister Mackenzie King – Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Canada
1938 – Agnes Campbell Macphail – Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Canada
1938 – Senator Cairine Wilson – Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Canada
1945 – George Washington, United States Embassy, Canberra, Australia
1948 – Simon Bolivar Monument, Bolivar, West Virginia
1948 – President Harry S. Truman bust – Truman Library, Independence, Missouri
1949 – George Bannerman Dealey statue, Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas
1949 – Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland
1949 – Secretary of the United States Senate Leslie Biffle, Main Post Office, Piggott, Arkansas
1949 – John Steelman, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas
1954 – Raising of the Flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima Memorial, Rosslyn, Virginia (original model 1946)
1954 – John Marshall bust, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
1954 – Sir William Blackstone bust, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
1954 – George Wythe bust, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
1955 – Marine Monument ("Iron Mike"), Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial, Belleau Wood, France
1959 – Equestrian Statue of Simon Bolivar, Washington, DC
1959 – American Red Cross Memorial, American Red Cross Headquarters, Washington, DC
1961 – Simon Bolivar Monument, Bedford Square, Baltimore, Maryland
1961 – Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia
1961 – Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd, McMurdo Station, Antarctica
1961 – St. Stephen the Martyr, Church of St. Stephen Martyr, Washington, DC
1963 – President John F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts
1963 – Harry S. Truman Monument, Athens, Greece
1964 – Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the House, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC
1964 – Patrick Cudahy Memorial, Cudahy, Wisconsin
1965 – Minute Man Statue – National Guard Monument, Washington, DC
1965 – Richard Rowland Kirkland Monument, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, Fredericksburg, Virginia
1966 – Walter Reed Sculpture, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC
1966 – Abraham Lincoln statue, Chapultepec Park, Mexico City
1966 – National Monument for Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1968 – Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the House, LBJ Library, Austin, Texas
1968 – Sergeant York, Tennessee State Capitol, Nashville, Tennessee
1971 – Senator Bob Bartlett, Statuary Hall, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC
1972 – Senator Dennis Chavez, Statuary Hall, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC
1973 – General George Rogers Clark, Louisville, Kentucky
1973 – Seabees Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, DC
1973 – Benjamin Franklin, Louisville Public Library, Louisville, Kentucky
1974 – Centennial Statue ("Astronaut Statue"), Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kentucky
1974 – Florence Martus statue ("Waving Girl"), Morrell Park, Savannah, Georgia
1976 – Torch of Freedom, Veterans of Foreign Wars Headquarters, Washington, DC
1976 – Admiral Ben Moreell "Father of the Seabees", Naval Base Ventura County
1976 – Archbishop John Carroll (bishop), Prince George's County Court House, Upper Marlboro, Maryland
1977 – Statue of Ty Cobb, Royston Public Library, Royston, Georgia
1980 – Mother Joseph, Statuary Hall, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC
1981 – Mother Joseph Statue, City Hall, Vancouver, Washington
1982 – General Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr., USMC, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia
1985 – William G. Leftwich, Jr., Lieutenant Colonel, USMC, Quantico, Virginia
1990 – President James Monroe statue, Fredericksburg, Virginia
1990 – Anchors Aweigh Sculpture, Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, New York, New York
1995 – Elvis Presley statue, Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee
Notes
References
SPQR FINE ART Felix de Weldon Bio
http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20060306_felix.86fdb98.html | Providence Journal: Artist's hidden legacy up for auction
External links
1907 births
2003 deaths
Sculptors from Vienna
Artists from Rhode Island
Burials at Arlington National Cemetery
United States Navy sailors
Austrian emigrants to the United States
University of Vienna alumni
United States Navy personnel of World War II
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American male artists
American male sculptors
Austrian expatriates in the United Kingdom