biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1907– )
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| biography:
| Sculptor and painter, born in Austria. The son of a wealthy textile manufacturer, he studied sculpture, and by age 17 was earning commissions. He went on to study in Paris, Rome, and Madrid, and in the 1930s settled in England, where he became known for his many portrait busts. By the early 1940s he had moved to Canada, and in World War 2 he enlisted in the US Navy and was assigned as a war artist. While stationed at Patuxent Naval Air Station (Maryland), he saw the photograph (by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press) of the US Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima on 23 February 1945, and he set to work at once to make a 3-foot-high model. His commanding officer recognized its impact and asked him to make a 9-foot model (of plaster and stone) for a war bond drive, which then led to a commission to make (during six years) the 78-foot-high, 100-ton statue, cast in bronze in Brooklyn and dedicated in 1954 as the Marine Corps War Memorial in Alexandria, VA. He served on the US Fine Arts Commission under presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. Known for his many portrait busts of presidents, kings, and other notables, he also produced some 2000 public sculptures, and 30 of his works are on view in and around Washington, DC. His reproductions are popular, including Humanity, a concave head of Christ with eyes that seem to follow you wherever you move. |
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