Felix de Weldon
Felix Weihs de Weldon was an Austrian-born American sculptor. His most famous pieces include the United States Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington County, Virginia 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 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. 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.
Felix de Weldon died on June 3, 2003 at the age of 96, in Woodstock, Virginia and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. de Weldon is survived by his son Daniel DeWeldon. He was also the father of the late Byron deWeldon, who died June 6, 2017. Daniel is collaborating with Allen Nalasco on a biopic of his father's life titled "De Weldon – The Man Behind The Monuments". Daniel will play the part of Felix during the height of his career.
Work
Approximately 1,200 de Weldon sculptures are located on seven countries..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 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 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 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 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, WV
- 1948 – President Harry S. Truman bust – Truman Library, Independence, MO
- 1949 – George Bannerman Dealey statue, Dealey Plaza, Dallas, TX
- 1949 – Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD
- 1949 – Secretary of the United States Senate Leslie Biffle, Main Post Office, Piggott, AR
- 1949 – John Steelman, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
- 1954 – Raising of the Flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima Memorial, Rosslyn, VA
- 1954 – John Marshall bust, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
- 1954 – Sir William Blackstone bust, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
- 1954 – George Wythe bust, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
- 1955 – Marine Monument, 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, MD
- 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, MA
- 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, WI
- 1965 – Minute Man Statue – National Guard Monument, Washington, DC
- 1965 – Richard Rowland Kirkland Monument, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, Fredericksburg, VA
- 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, TX
- 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, KY
- 1973 – Seabees Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, DC
- 1973 – Benjamin Franklin, Louisville Public Library, Louisville, KY
- 1974 – Centennial Statue, Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY
- 1974 – Florence Martus statue, Morrell Park, Savannah, GA
- 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, Prince George's County Court House, Upper Marlboro, MD
- 1977 – Ty Cobb, Roberta Moore Brown Municipal Complex, Royston, GA
- 1980 – Mother Joseph, Statuary Hall, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC
- 1981 – Mother Joseph Statue, City Hall, Vancouver, WA
- 1982 – General Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr., USMC, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, VA
- 1985 – William G. Leftwich, Jr., Lieutenant Colonel, USMC, Quantico, VA
- 1990 – President James Monroe statue, Fredericksburg, VA
- 1990 – Anchors Aweigh Sculpture, Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, New York, NY
- 1995 – Elvis Presley statue, Graceland, Memphis, TN