Bonhams 1793 : Joe Rosenthal, (Photographer, 1911-2006) Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima. The original photograph 23rd February 1945, this copy possibly June 1945

An enlarged photograph of Rosenthal's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of the Iwo Jima flag raising. This example inscribed by Rosenthal in ink on the right hand side, 'To Felix de Weldon with admiration from Joe Rosenthal', small inset snap at upper right corner of 4 GIs displaying a captured Japanese prayer flag. The snap covering a small clean tear behind.
20in. x 16in.

Sold for US$ 9,375 inc. premium

Footnotes

Provenance:
The War Museum

Rosenthal's prize-winning photograph of the Raising of the Flag became engrained into the subconscious of a generation when it was selected to be sent back from Guam on the afternoon of the 23rd February 1945 and subsequently appeared in all the newspapers. It was perhaps de Weldon who also contributed considerably to its success too. When he chose that photograph to model his Iwo Jima Monument on and when the Treasury Dept saw his model and decided to make a light weight version to tour the country and use the 3 surviving flag raisers as the center-piece of the 7th War Loan Drive, so the die was cast for the young photographer. Of course it's an amazing photograph shot in a battle situation, and so it's apt that Rosenthal inscribes this photograph to the man who copied him in stone and in bronze, and who kept him in the public eye for many years. They probably first met before they went to see President Truman in June, 1945, and surely over the years they met many times at events and celebrations.