The fellow in the foreground with the extended leg is standing where Hemingway’s Santiago will stand as he pulls the skeleton of his 18-foot marlin toward the tower, a Pyrrhic victory. The principal difference in their appearances is that Santiago will be mounted on a backward-sloping 30-inch dais, yet to be constructed.

The phrase Pyrrhic victory is named after Greek King Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose army suffered irreplaceable casualties in defeating the Romans at Heraclea in 280 BC and Asculum in 279 BC during the Pyrrhic War. After the latter battle, Plutarch relates in a report by Dionysius: The armies separated; and, it is said, Pyrrhus replied to one that gave him joy of his victory that one more such victory would utterly undo him.- WIKIPEDIA
 
 

This photo of our own life-size bronze, The Old Man and the Sea,
was taken by the sculptor, Jane DeDecker herself, at a lake near
her home in Colorado. A few days later she delivered this Old Man
to us. Jane DeDecker is among the most accomplished sculptors in
the world today. Wizard Academy is privileged to own two of her
monumental works in bronze.