Hi Everyone!

This photo is the face of a rather huge sculpture that is located at the National Harbor Beach. If you’ve been there before, you may not be aware that there is a rather interesting history behind the sculpture.

The Statue is called “The Awakening” and was created by J. Seward Johnson Jr. He is an American artist known for his trompe l’oeil painted bronze statues.

He is best known for his life-size bronze statues, which actually are castings of living people of all ages depicting them engaged in day-to-day activities.

“The Awakening” was originally installed at Hains Point in Washington, D.C. in 1980 for the International Sculpture Conference Exhibition. Although its National Park Service “temporary permit” had long expired, the statue remained for 27 years at the southern end of Hains Point, across the Potomac River from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The Statue was positioned in a large, flat, open field.

In 2007, the National Park Service announced that the sculpture would be moved to the National Harbor, after the artist sold the statue for $750,000. The sculpture was excavated and removed from Hains Point on February 20, 2008, and then was installed at National Harbor in a configuration to correct scale issues that existed in the original sculpture.

Pretty cool, don’t you think?

Source of Information: Wikipedia