Viewing page 19 of 36

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Sculpture Report

E.M. Viquesney: Portrait of Doughboy's sculptor

by Alan Anderson

Ernest Moore "Dick" Viquesney (1876-1946), a native of Spencer, Ind., the son and grandson of French sculptors, designed The Spirit of the American Doughboy, a World War I Memorial depicting a seven-foot tall bronze figure boldly striding into no-man's land. The sculpture is familiar to many: at least 138 life-size copies have been documented in 35 states.1

Arriving in Americus, Ga., in October 1905, Viquesney went to work for C.J. Clark's Monuments, designing mortuary sculpture. Until 1920, when he created the Doughboy, Viquesney worked at several marble works and polished his craft on the monuments then being erected at nearby Andersonville National Cemetery. It was as an employee for the Schneider Marble Works that Viquesney formed "the only absolutely perfectly equipped and historically correct example of what the United States infantry soldier was, and stood for,"2 as well as a monument burial vault that received a patent.

Viquesney, himself a veteran of the Spanish-American War, devoted all his spare time over a two-year period to perfecting the Doughboy. He interviewed returning veterans, studied hundreds of photographs, and even had two local veterans, A.B. Turpin and Walter Rylander, model in their full combat regalia.

Apparently, the Doughboy was first purchased for $5,000 for placement in Nashville, Ga., in August 1920. In April 1921, the Doughboy was selected to grace the official national American Legion memorial at Centralia, Wash. Momentum increased as a 12-inch miniature was made available mid-year, for only $6, near the time that another copy was dedicated at Furman University in Greenville, S.C.

Viquesney himself was busy with the Armistice Day unveiling of his adopted hometown's own $4,000 version in 1921. It was mounted on a 10-foot marble pedestal from Schneider's, with a six-to-seven-ton boulder. Originally situated at a downtown intersection, it was moved to the south end of Rees Park in 1948.

After selling the rights to the Doughboy in 1922 and re-acquiring them in 1925, Viquesney continued to market the figure and explored various other business interests. Cora Viquesney died in 1933; following the death of his second wife shortly after his 70th birthday, Ernest Moore Viquesney, alone and despondent, committed suicide at his home in Spencer on October 4, 1946.

1 T. Perry Wesley, editor emeritus of The Owen Leader, Spencer, Ind.
2 Americus [Ga.] Times Recorder, January 30, 1921.

Alan Anderson is an archivist for the Sumter Historic Preservation Society.

[[image]]
Photo by John Carroll
The Amicus, Ga., Doughboy has been vandalized and is missing his left hand and rifle. A group of citizens is launching a restoration effort.

page 4