Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

BUST OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, AFTER HOUDON. DE WELDON, FELIX. 1907-2003. Bronze Bust of George Washington. Washington: 1948. image 1
BUST OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, AFTER HOUDON. DE WELDON, FELIX. 1907-2003. Bronze Bust of George Washington. Washington: 1948. image 2
BUST OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, AFTER HOUDON. DE WELDON, FELIX. 1907-2003. Bronze Bust of George Washington. Washington: 1948. image 3
BUST OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, AFTER HOUDON. DE WELDON, FELIX. 1907-2003. Bronze Bust of George Washington. Washington: 1948. image 4
Lot 89W

BUST OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, AFTER HOUDON.
DE WELDON, FELIX. 1907-2003.
Bronze Bust of George Washington. Washington: 1948.

14 October 2020, 13:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$3,825 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

BUST OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, AFTER HOUDON.

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.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

A Presentation Copy of Kennedy's First Book to Spencer Tracy. Kennedy, John F. 1917-1963. Why England Slept. New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1940.

Signed to Spencer Tracy 1952 Hemingway, Ernest. 1899-1961. The Old Man and the Sea, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952.

CORNELIUS, MATTHEWS, editor. 1817-1889. The Enchanted Moccasins and Other Legends of the American Indians.

CALEPINO, AMBROGIO. 1435-1511. [Dictionarium.] Calepinus Ad librum. Mos est putidas.... Venice: Peter Liechtenstein, January 3, 1509.

HEARN, LAFCADIO. 1850-1904. [Japanese Fairy Tales.] Philadelphia: Macrae-Smith, [But Tokyo: T. Hasegawa,] [c.1931].

HEMINGWAY, ERNEST. 1899-1961. PUTNAM, SAMUEL, translator. Kiki's Memoirs. Paris: Sign of the Black Manikin, 1930.