NYC: DeWitt Clinton Park - Clinton War Memorial
The Clinton War Memorial, located at the southeast corner of Dewitt Clinton Park, was dedicated on on Armistice (now Veterans) Day, 1929. The work of sculptor Burt W. Johnson (1890–1927) and architect Harvey Wiley Corbett (1873-1954), it was commissioned by the Clinton District Association as a memorial to the young men from the neighborhood who died in World War I.
The monument consists of a pensive infantryman, known as a “doughboy,” who holds poppies in his right hand and whose his rifle is slung over his left shoulder. The granite pedestal is inscribed with a the following verse, taken from the famous poem by John McCrae (1872–1918) “Flanders Field.”
If ye break faith
With those who died
We shall not sleep
Though poppies grow
On Flanders Field
Burt Johnson studied with sculptors James Earle Fraser and Louis Saint-Gaudens, brother of the renowned artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Receiving many public commissions from coast to coast, Johnson also created the doughboy statue for the Woodside Doughboy (1923) in Doughboy Park in Queens. This statue was dedicated on November 11, 1929, before “comrades and friends,” two years after Johnson had died. In 1997, the sculpture was conserved through a project jointly sponsored by the Times Square Business Improvement District and the Mayor’s Office of Youth Employment Services.
NYC: DeWitt Clinton Park - Clinton War Memorial
The Clinton War Memorial, located at the southeast corner of Dewitt Clinton Park, was dedicated on on Armistice (now Veterans) Day, 1929. The work of sculptor Burt W. Johnson (1890–1927) and architect Harvey Wiley Corbett (1873-1954), it was commissioned by the Clinton District Association as a memorial to the young men from the neighborhood who died in World War I.
The monument consists of a pensive infantryman, known as a “doughboy,” who holds poppies in his right hand and whose his rifle is slung over his left shoulder. The granite pedestal is inscribed with a the following verse, taken from the famous poem by John McCrae (1872–1918) “Flanders Field.”
If ye break faith
With those who died
We shall not sleep
Though poppies grow
On Flanders Field
Burt Johnson studied with sculptors James Earle Fraser and Louis Saint-Gaudens, brother of the renowned artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Receiving many public commissions from coast to coast, Johnson also created the doughboy statue for the Woodside Doughboy (1923) in Doughboy Park in Queens. This statue was dedicated on November 11, 1929, before “comrades and friends,” two years after Johnson had died. In 1997, the sculpture was conserved through a project jointly sponsored by the Times Square Business Improvement District and the Mayor’s Office of Youth Employment Services.