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Cyrus Edwin Dallin

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Cyrus Edwin Dallin

Cyrus Edwin Dallin (November 22, 1861 – November 14, 1944) was an American sculptor best known for his depictions of Native Americans. He created more than 260 works, including the Equestrian Statue of Paul Revere in Boston; the Angel Moroni atop Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City; and Appeal to the Great Spirit (1908), at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He was also an accomplished painter and an Olympic archer.

Dallin was born in Springville, Utah Territory, the son of Thomas and Jane (Hamer) Dallin, both of whom had left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before their marriage.

At age 19, Dallin moved from Utah to Boston to study sculpture with Truman Howe Bartlett. Two wealthy Utah mining investors; C.H. Blanchard and Jacob Lawrence funded his move. He then studied in with Henri Chapu and at the Académie Julian in Paris.

In 1883, Dallin entered a competition to sculpt an equestrian statue of Paul Revere for Boston, Massachusetts. He won the competition and received a contract, but six versions of his model were rejected. The fifth model was not accepted because of fundraising problems. The seventh version was accepted in 1939 and the full-size statue was unveiled in 1940.

Dallin converted to Unitarianism and initially turned down the offer to sculpt the angel Moroni for the spire of the LDS Church's Salt Lake Temple. He later accepted the commission and, after finishing the statue said, "My angel Moroni brought me nearer to God than anything I ever did." His statue became a symbol for the LDS Church and was the model for other angel Moroni statues on the spires of LDS Church temples.

In Boston, Dallin became a colleague of Augustus St. Gaudens and a close friend of painters John Singer Sargent and William McGregor Paxton with whom he played baseball for the St. Botolph Club. He married Vittoria Colonna Murray in 1891 and returned to Utah to work on The Angel Moroni (1893). He taught for a year at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, while completing his Sir Isaac Newton (1895) for the Library of Congress. In 1897, he traveled to Paris, and studied with Jean Dampt. In 1889 and 1890 he developed a friendship with prominent European painter Rosa Bonheur. Together they traveled to Neuilly outside of Paris to sketch the animals and cast of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show at their encampment.

He entered a Don Quixote statuette in the Salon of 1897, and The Medicine Man in the Salon of 1899 and the Exposition Universelle (1900). The couple moved to Arlington, Massachusetts, in 1900, where they established their residence and raised three sons.

At the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Dallin competed in archery, winning the bronze medal in the team competition. He finished ninth in the Double American round and 12th in the Double York round.

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