Beschreibung:

DE WELDON, FELIX. 1907-2003. Bronze Bust of George Washington. Washington: 1948. A bronze life-size head and shoulders bust of George Washington, mounted on a green marble base, signed at the neck "Felix de Weldon," height 21 inches (530mm), width 21 inches (530mm). Provenance: Estate of Felix de Weldon; Rodney Hilton Brown (de Weldon's biographer); The War Museum. A fine atmospheric bronze bust of Washington by the foremost sculptor of monuments in the post-war period. De Weldon modeled it on Jean-Antoine Houdon's famous head and shoulders sculpture of George Washington. It is believed that there were about 4 or 5 castings of this bust in bronze, and this is the example retained by the sculptor. Others are known to be in the Washington and Lee University, another in the Army and Navy Club in D.C., and a third at a mid western university. At the time of this composition, de Weldon was still an up and coming sculptor, having completed his first Iwo Jima Monument in 1945, for which he received International recognition, including a citation in the Congressional Record. In the period before he received the commission in 1951 to design and build the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington (one of the pinnacles of war sculpture) de Weldon was flooded with commissions from around the world. He made busts of many WW2 Admirals, Generals, of President Truman, and also found time to cast other patriotic sculptures, such as this Washington bronze.