page_title: Cyrus Edwin Dallin
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Cyrus Edwin Dallin / Biography
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Dallin
context_page_description: Cyrus Edwin Dallin was an American sculptor best known for his depictions of Native Americans. He created more than 260 works, including the equestrian statue of Paul Revere in Boston, Massachusetts; the Angel Moroni atop Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah; and his most famous work, Appeal to the Great Spirit, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He was also an Olympic archer.
context_section_description: Dallin, the son of Thomas and Jane (Hamer) Dallin, was born in Springville, Utah Territory, although his parents had left The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) before their marriage. At age 19, he moved to Boston to study sculpture with Truman Howe Bartlett. He studied in Paris, with Henri Chapu and at the Académie Julian.
  In 1883, he entered the competition for an equestrian statue of Paul Revere for Boston, Massachusetts. He won the competition and received a contract, but six versions of his model were rejected. The fifth model was not accepted because of fundraising problems. The seventh version was accepted in 1939 and the full-size statue was unveiled in 1940.
  Dallin Converted to Unitarianism and initially turned down the offer to sculpt the angel Moroni for the spire of the LDS Church's Salt Lake Temple. He later accepted the commission and, after finishing the statue said, "My angel Moroni brought me nearer to God than anything I ever did." His statue became a symbol for the LDS Church and was the model for other angel Moroni statues on the spires of LDS Church temples.
  In Boston, Dallin became a colleague of Augustus St. Gaudens and a close friend of John Singer Sargent. He married Vittoria Colonna Murray in 1891, and returned to Utah to work on The Angel Moroni (1893). He taught for a year at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, while completing his Sir Isaac Newton (1895) for the Library of Congress. In 1897, he traveled to Paris, and studied with Jean Dampt. He entered a Don Quixote statuette in the Salon of 1897, and The Medicine Man in the Salon of 1899 and the Exposition Universelle (1900). The couple moved to Arlington, Massachusetts in 1900, where they lived for the rest of their lives and raised three sons.
  At the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, Dallin competed in archery, winning the bronze medal in the team competition. He finished ninth in the Double American round and 12th in the Double York round.
  From 1899 to 1941, he was a member of the faculty of Massachusetts Normal Art School (now the Massachusetts College of Art and Design). In 1912, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1930.
  When he died in 1944 his life was celebrated in a Unitarian service.
caption: Portrait of Dallin, 1899
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