Felix de Weldon

Felix Weihs de Weldon (April 12, 1907 – June 3, 2003) was an Austrian-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 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 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 was survived by two sons, including actor Daniel de Weldon. Daniel is collaborating with Barry Krost Management on a biopic of his father's life.

Work

Approximately 1,200 de Weldon sculptures are located in 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 1944 - [life-size crucifix] St. Nicholas Chapel, Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland 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