Joseph Pasquale Pollia (6 March 1894, Sicily, Italy – 12 December 1954, New York City)[1] was an Italian-born American sculptor who created numerous monuments and war memorials.
He and his family – parents Pasquale and Alexandra, and older sister Caterina – emigrated from Sicily to the United States in 1896, and settled in Boston, Massachusetts.[2] His father worked as a barber at 21 High Street.[3]
He studied with Bela Pratt at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.[4][5] He succeeded Joseph Bailey Ellis as director of the Modern School of Sculpture in Boston,[6] and taught summer courses at the Sawyer's Island Art School in Boothbay, Maine.[7]
He had an early success with his statue My Buddy (1925), for the Richmond Hill World War Memorial at Forest Park in Queens, New York City:[8]
The memorial features a strapping soldier who takes a moment to stand before the grave of a lost comrade. His head is bowed in contemplation of a small cross protruding from a mound of dirt. A helmet hangs from his right arm, leaving his lowered head bare, and showing off thick locks of hair that fall in waves onto his forehead.[9]
The soldier was reputedly modeled after silent movie star Francis X. Bushman.[10] Replicas of the statue are in Storm Lake, Iowa; Tarrytown, New York;[11] and Franklin, Massachusetts (as Mourning Doughboy).
His most famous work is the Equestrian statue of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson at Manassas National Battlefield Park, near Gainesville, Virginia. The Virginia Fine Arts Commission announced a design competition for the monument in 1938, and his winning submission was chosen from 80 entries in March 1939.[12] The monument was dedicated August 31, 1940.[13]
[A] Herculean Jackson sits tall upon an equally muscular horse as he gazes out across Henry Hill. He wears a cape that appears to be lifted by a dramatic wind, lending itself to his heroic stance. The large lettering on the base of the monument boldly declares, "There Stands Jackson Like a Stone Wall," referencing the words purportedly spoken by General Bernard Bee at the Battle of first Manassas, immortalizing Jackson with his nickname.[13]
Pollia was a member of the Architectural League of New York and the National Sculpture Society, and exhibited at the 1929 NSS show.[5] He was elected an academician of the National Academy of Design in 1953.[14]
News of his death was reported by several newspapers.[15] He and his wife, Mary G. Anastasi, are buried together at Santa Clara Mission Cemetery in Santa Clara, California.
