Maquette for the American Expeditionary Forces Memorial

1924-1926

MAQUETTE FOR THE AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES MEMORIAL (American, 1924-1926) by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (American, 1875-1942) cast by Valsuani. The monument was dedicated in 1926 at Saint Nazaire in Brittany, France to commemorate the landing of the World War I American Expeditionary Force. The monument depicts a World War I infantry solider holding a sword with outstretched arms and standing on the back of an eagle. The eagle is perched on a truncated obelisk rising over a rocky outcropping. The monument at Saint Nazaire was destroyed during the Nazi occupation of France in World War II and re-erected in the 1990s by contemporary French sculptor Pierre Fousenant after the original.

France

bronze

74.9 x 58.4 cm (29 1/2 x 23 inches)

Gift of the heirs of Flora Whitney Miller, 1976.

PSNC.4381