The Spirit of American Youth

'The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves', actually, as is the full title of this sculpture. It shows an 'American youth with arms outstretched and looking towards the sky. His legs and feet are curved back together as his curved body appears rising from the waves below'.

This nude bronze was casted in Milan, Italy (Battaglia foundry), and has an impressive height of 6.7 meters. It is the main statue of the American cemetery of Colleville-sur-Mer also called Omaha beach, in Normandy.

The sculptor is Donald Harcourt De Lue, born in Boston in 1897 and known for numerous monuments. He studied arts in Boston, then in Paris for five years. He teached at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York around 1940. He died in 1988 in New Jersey. We may come back to this American sculptor's general work in another post.

Two copies exist, one half-size is in the courtyard, outside the First Infantry Division Museum, Cantigny Park, Wheaton near Chicago.

 And another one in a Mall in Glensdale, 18 feet high, covered with gold-leaf.

Sources
Wikipedia
Colleville-sur-mer American cemetery wwii
Booklet about the Memorial