Press release

Life-Size Bronze Sculpture of Ernest Hemingway to be Unveiled July 21, 2005

Long a part of the lore and literary heritage of Key West, Ernest Hemingway will become a permanent presence when a life-size bronze statue of the famous writer is installed in front of the Custom House in July. Sculptor Terry Jones will be unveiling his life-size bronze sculpture of Hemingway on Thursday, July 21, 2005 at 5:00 PM. Birthday cake and mojitos will be served immediately following to celebrate the 106th birthday of Ernest Hemingway.

Internationally renowned sculptor Terry Jones created the full-size clay model of the sculpture last October and November in the studio at Fort East Martello Museum, the casting was completed at the Laran Bronze Foundry in Chester, Pa.

The bronze statue, which depicts Hemingway with a moustache, clad in fishing clothes – as he looked when he lived in key West during the 1930s – has been donated to the Key West Museum of Art & History through the generosity of David L. Copham, a Fort Myers businessman and avid Hemingway fan.

“Mr. Copham has made a very significant contribution to the people of Key West as well as to everyone who visits the island and passes along Front Street,” said Claudia Pennington, executive director of the Key West Art & Historical Society. “Because the statue is cast bronze, it will be a lasting cultural monument for this century and quite probably the next.”

A limited number of 13-inch bronze copies of the statue will be sold in the museum’s gift shops with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Art & Historical Society.

Although Jones himself has a full gray beard, and plans to enter the Papa Look-alike contest during Hemingway Days, he chose to represent Hemingway in his late thirties when he sported a moustache and lived in the house on Whitehead Street.

“Sculpting Hemingway with a full beard, the way he appeared in many popular photographs taken later in his life, would have been much easier,” Jones said, “but it would not be historically accurate. In fact,” Jones said, “the whole task of making a Hemingway monument has been, well, monumental. Hemingway is man of mythical proportions, larger than life. He’s the legendary male of his generation,” he said. “I looked at hundreds of photographs including those made by Alfred Eisenstaedt, the Life Magazine photographer who described Hemingway as one of his most difficult subjects. I understand that now. Hemingway is a tough head. I wanted to capture his spirit, which could be just an expression in one eye.”

Terry Jones has been a professional sculptor for the past 37 years. His historical statuary from the Napoleonic Wars, the Civil War, World War II and Viet Nam stands in cities throughout the country. His formal education was at the Hussian School of Art in Philadelphia and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. In 1980 he was selected to show at the International Exhibit of Medallic Art, Florence, Italy. The American Numismatic Association named him Medallic Sculptor of the Year in 1984. In 1988 his eight-foot bronze statue of Gen. John Gibbon, a Philadelphia native, was dedicated at Gettysburg. He sculpted portraits of Gov. Tom Ridge and Lt. Gov. Mark Schweiker for PA Inaugural Medal in 1999.

In 2001 Jones made two seven-foot figures for the “Angel of Marye’s Heights” monument at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA, and in 2003 a 21-foot high granite monument containing four life-size bronze statues was dedicated at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y.
His works also are in private and museum collections worldwide.

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