Charles A. Lindbergh, the Boy and the Man by Paul T. Granlund

Charles A. Lindbergh: the Boy and the Man
Artist: Paul T. Granlund - St. Peter, Minnesota

Located at the west end of Terminal 2 West, near the pedestrian bridge, this famous sculpture presents two images of Charles Lindbergh: a small boy playfully pretending to fly, and the accomplished 25-year-old solo aviator who amazed the world in 1927 by becoming the first person to pilot an airplane nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris.

Additional notes on the sculpture...

"Charles A. Lindbergh: The Boy and the Man" is a two-figure bronze sculpture that captures Lindbergh at two stages of his life -- as a young boy as he might have looked playing along the banks of the Mississippi River in his home town of Little Falls, Minnesota, and as the famous 25-year-old aviator at the time of his solo flight from New York to Paris.

A twin to the sculpture which stands on the State Capitol grounds in St. Paul, Minnesota, this artwork was a subsequent casting of the St. Paul work by Dr. Paul T. Granlund. The original casting was commissioned jointly by The Charles A. Lindbergh Fund and the Minnesota Historical Society for the 1985 Lindbergh Heritage Week, which celebrated Lindbergh's Minnesota roots.

Another casting of this sculpture was unveiled at Le Bourget Field in Paris, France, in 1987 to serve as a lasting visual reminder of Lindbergh's feat and his Minnesota upbringing that inspired his imagination and a determination to fly.

Granlund is unique among sculptors in casting his own work rather than sending it to a foundry.
Description and Dimensions...

"Charles A. Lindbergh: The Boy"

"The Boy" shows Lindbergh, his arms outstretched, imitating the flight of birds and occasional airplanes he saw near his small town home. Dressed in overalls and barefooted, with a slingshot stuffed in a pocket, he appears like many young boys might have looked in the early 1900s.

Height. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 feet, 9-1/2 inches
Weight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 pounds

"Charles A. Lindbergh: The Man"

"The Man" depicts a handsome, 25-year-old Lindbergh: tall, confident, introspective. Wearing his leather aviator's jacket, sturdy shoes and a calf-length pants, he carries his aviator's cap in one hand; the other hand is extended: this is the young Charles Lindbergh the world welcomed as a hero in 1927.

Height. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 feet, 8 inches
Weight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470 pounds

Bases for the figures weigh an additional 500 pounds.

Overall height. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 feet, 8 inches
Overall weight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,135 pounds
Artist's notes: by Paul T. Granlund...

I have portrayed Charles Lindbergh at two different ages, the young boy during his many summers in Minnesota and the young man who became the hero aviator overnight.

Lindbergh as a boy must have played for hours running barefoot beside the Mississippi during long summer days in Little Falls. As he watched birds and an occasional airplane flying above he must have mimicked their flight with a childlike gesture. His clothing is reminiscent of clothing identified in historic photographs.

The hero aviator Charles Lindbergh is presented on an elevated pedestal. I have used clothing seen in historic photographs, and his gesture seems appropriate for a man of his height and age. I have modeled this figure keeping in mind the simplicity of the young man, the courage he had in taking up such a challenge and the awe he must have felt as he experienced the consequences of his act.

The scale of this model relates to figures which will approximate 7 feet 8 inches for the man and 5 feet 3 inches for the boy. The larger base pedestal would approximate 4 feet square and 8 inches high. The elevate pedestal would approximate 2 feet 9 inches square with an overall height of 20 inches.
Notes from the aviator, Charles A. Lindbergh...

I used to imagine myself with wings on which I could swoop down off our roof into the valley, soaring through the air from one river bank to another...

Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could you ask of life? Aviation combined all the elements I loved.

The accumulation of knowledge, the discoveries of science, the products of technology, our ideas, our art, our social structures, all the achievements of mankind have value only to the extent that they preserve and improve the quality of life.

Notes about the artist and artwork...

Excerpts from: Paul T. Granlund: Spirit of Bronze, Shape of Freedom
by William K. Freiert
Primarius Limited Publishing
Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1991

Perhaps the life-size portrait for which Granlund is best known is his "Charles A. Lindbergh - The Boy and the Man" (1985), that stands at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, as well as in Paris, France, and San Diego, California. In the Lindbergh sculpture, Granlund breaks through the boundary between adult and child by portraying the aviator in both guises. As a child himself, Granlund had loved the idea of flying and littered the basement with stylized model airplanes. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II, hoping to become a pilot. Inspired by Lindbergh’s description of his childhood fantasies involving sprouting wings and flying across the Mississippi, Granlund portrayed the future hero as a boy with arms outstretched, soaring in his imagination into the future. Behind him strides Lindbergh the man with the confidence and vision of the accomplished flyer-one man in two generations, striding in opposite directions, the adult the offspring of the child’s dreams. Although the boy and the man do not touch, that boundary between living and dead was breached momentarily at the unveiling of the statue. In a poignant scene, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the flyer’s lifelong companion, reached up and held the hand of her husband. As she paused with head bowed, many bystanders were moved to tears.”

Paul T. Granlund is recognized as a premier sculptor thoughout the United States and abroad. His figurative bronze sculptures are enjoyed in private homes and in public settings from Minneapolis to Syndey, from Paris to Hong Kong. For the past twenty years [as of 1991], Granlund has lived and worked in St. Peter, Minnesota, where he holds the position of sculptor-in-residence at Gustavus Adolphus College.