Meet Sabin Howard— Sculptor and Creator of A Soldier’s Journey

A Soldier's Journey is not a glorification of war, but a memorial to healing and to the human potential to rise to the occasion.

Sabin Howard, Sculptor

Studio Model of "The Ordeal" Section of
A Soldier's Journey

Sabin Howard is the acclaimed master sculptor of A Soldier’s Journey, the sculptural heart of the National WWI Memorial to be dedicated in Washington D.C. on 13 September 2024. Howard grew up in New York City and in Torino, Italy. He studied art at the Philadelphia College of Art and then earned his MFA from the New York Academy of Art. For twenty years, he taught at the graduate and undergraduate levels. He has been elected to the board of the National Sculpture Society. He has received numerous commissions and has shown his work at more than fifty solo and group shows. His style of figurative sculpture has been called both neo-classical and neo-realist.

After thousands of hours of working from life models in the studio, Howard designed and with his talented staff  created the monumental bronze, A Soldier’s Journey, that memorializes the courage and sacrifice of our veterans in WWI, and in all wars. Previously he has created an illustrious body of work, including three heroic scale pieces, Hermes, Aphrodite, and Apollo, as well as many smaller pieces. His works are owned by museums and private collectors all over the world. Sabin is also the author of the book The Art of Life with his wife, Traci L. Slatton.

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Hermes by Sabin Howard, 2005 (Dynamic, no?)

A Soldier’s Journey  contains 38 separate figures, spread over 58 feet of wall 10 feet high. They collectively portray the experience of one American soldier—"Everyman"—in the war that was "To end all wars." Starting from the left, Everyman takes leave from his wife and daughter, charges into combat, sees men around him killed, wounded, and gassed, and recovers from the shock to come home to his family.

The massive relief sculpture will be displayed to the nation for the first time Friday 13 September with Sabin and lead project architect Joe Weishaar in attendance. The audience will get to see A Soldier's Journey, the central and final piece of the city-block-sized National World War One Memorial dedicated in a unique First Illumination ceremony. The sculpture will be even more dramatic, at night with lighting.

The Artist in His Studio

The selection of Sabin Howard to create the centerpiece for the National Memorial is complex and and quite modern sounding  as recounted by the one man who had a ringside seat to the process, the project's lead architect, Joe Weishaar:

When I was first short-listed as a finalist in the competition, it was only me. At the very first meeting that I had with the Commission, and really anyone in DC, they took a look at the submission and said, "It looks like you've got quite a bit of sculpture here...so...how are you going to do it?"  

I went back home to Chicago and began the search for a sculptor on Google (like you do when you're 25). By this point in the process, the WWI Commission had published all of the other 364 entries from the first round of the competition on their website. I had seen a remarkable drawing of two soldiers huddled together in one of the other entries and thought to myself that I needed to find someone who had talent like that. 

Anyway, back to my Google searching. I Googled everything, sculptor, American sculptor, living American sculptor, because until that last addition of the word "living", I was getting results for Italian renaissance sculptors, then dead American sculptors like Daniel Chester French, and on and on. When I added in "living", suddenly I was directed to the National Sculpture Society's website and they listed something like 400 contributing members. I sat down with a legal pad and went website to website for hours. 

Sabin was grouped with the S's rather than H's for Howard, but when I came to his website, I saw the drawing from that first submission that he had done. At that point, I threw my legal pad over my shoulder and cold called him. He was out, so I left him a long email. He called me back about 2 hours later just ecstatic and we hit it off pretty much immediately. I met him in person at his studio 11 days later and paid him out of my own pocket to do the drawings for the competition entry. 

Sabin Howard Has Stated That This Sculpture of
a British Tommy by Charles Sargeant Jagger
at Paddington Station, London, Influenced His Design
 of A Soldier's Story More Than Any Other Monument.

Edwin Fountain, vice chairman of the World War I Centennial Commission, who took the lead in organizing the effort to build the new memorial of the, has worked closely with Sabin from start to finish of A Soldier's Journey and has this to say about him:

Lead architect Joe Weishaar’s selection of Sabin Howard as the sculptor for the WWI Memorial was serendipitous. Sabin’s skill and artistry were evident from the outset, and during the competition he instinctively presented themes that we would want reflected in the memorial, but he had never before undertaken a project of this scale or emotional intensity.  Once he and Joe were selected, he elevated his craft and his art in ways that I don’t think even he anticipated.  His prior work had not involved the kind of kinetic energy, raw passion, inter-locking figures, and narrative structure that he brought to “A Soldier’s Journey.”  It is evident that he was inspired by his feeling of service to veterans, and by his mission to create a unifying image of national service and sacrifice.  Watching him work has been awe-inspiring, and I believe “A Soldier’s Journey” will go down as one of the most admired works of American art in our history.

 

Sabin Howard Sculpting One of the Figures of
"The Ordeal" Shown Above
(Yes, our Doughboy-1918 model is checking out his cell phone.)

 

The First Illumination event on 13 September will be made available worldwide via online streaming. This will give the opportunity to experience Sabin Howard's magnificent creation as a unified artistic and patriotic work.

Sign-up HERE for the service.

Sources: Worldwar One Centennial Commission; Sabin Howard Website; EIN Presswire