Victory, First Division Memorial (Model)

In the fall of 1919 General Charles Summerall approached the Commission of Fine Arts in Washington, DC with an idea to erect a monument to those members of the First Division of the American Expeditionary Force who had lost their lives in WWI. The Commission and General Summerall decided on Cass Gilbert to work as the architect for the memorial, and he chose Daniel Chester French to execute the statue that would adorn the pillar. The winged figure of Victory, holding a flag in her right hand and extending a blessing to the dead with her left, was a compelling symbol of the sacrifice made by those who had not come back from Flanders fields.

This model was cast for one of the Huntington Museum of Art's most influential and important early patrons. Herbert Fitzpatrick met Cass Gilbert on a train in the spring of 1926. They fell to talking of architecture, Fitzpatrick was a member of the West Virginia Capitol Commission, and of one piece in Washington for which Fitzpatrick expressed a great admiration-that piece being Victory. He asked Gilbert if he would secure a model for him, and the architect duly obliged. The model seen here represents one of the sources of new commissions the National Sculptural Society sought. Based on monumental public architecture it was produced for the home. Based on the working model for the memorial, the figure represents French's commitment to the classical idea in his sculpture, a new source of commissions, and a fitting reminder of those who died during the Great War.