Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907), the leading American sculptor of the late 19th century, is best known for his bronze historical memorials.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin, Ireland, on March 1, 1848, and taken to America as an infant. He grew up in New York City. At the age of 13 he was apprenticed to a cameo cutter, and he later attended classes at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design. In 1867 he went to Paris, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, and in 1870 he left for Rome. His marble Hiawatha and Silence, carved in Rome, were his only significant works in the still prevalent neoclassic style.

Shortly after Saint-Gaudens returned to the United States in 1875, he received the commission for the Adm. Farragut monument in Madison Square, New York City. This work, which was completed in 1881, is imbued with the spirit of the early Renaissance, and it established his reputation. It was the first of a number of memorials relating to the Civil War. In the Farragut monument he combines the idealistic sense of the heroic with vivid portraiture. The base is adorned with extremely delicate low-relief sculptures, a form which Saint-Gaudens revived from the Renaissance. He had already achieved success in low-relief portraits.

Saint-Gaudens next executed a sculpture of Abraham Lincoln standing in front of a Renaissance chair (1887) for Lincoln Park, Chicago. As in the Farragut, he was associated with the architect Sanford White in constructing the base. Saint-Gaudens's Puritan (1887), a memorial to Deacon Samuel Chapin in Springfield, Mass., is an eloquent embodiment of early New England Puritanism. His next major Civil War monument was the complex memorial to Robert Gould Shaw (1884-1897), who had led the first regiment of Negro troops from Massachusetts and died during the conflict in 1863. This monument, opposite the State House in Boston, has a high-relief equestrian statue and other figures in varying depths of relief.

Probably Saint-Gaudens's best-known work is his memorial to Gen. Sherman (1892-1903) in Central Park, New York City, a work which blends realism and idealism. The figure of Victory is based on the ancient Victory of Samothrace, and the great equestrian statue is related to Donatello's 15th-century Gattamelata. Diana (1892; now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art) is Saint-Gaudens's one ideal nude. Perhaps his most moving and affecting sculpture is the figure sometimes entitled Grief (1891-1893), the monument to Mrs. Henry Adams in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C. The inscrutable, enigmatic form is a touching embodiment of personal grief and tragedy, the greatest of all the allegories of death of the period.

Saint-Gaudens was eminently successful in his own time. He was the leader in the artistic community which grew up around his estate at Cornish, N. H. He died there on Aug. 3, 1907, and his house and studio have been preserved as the Saint-Gaudens Memorial.

Further Reading

A definitive study of Saint-Gaudens by John Dryfhout was in preparation as of 1972. Useful works are Royal Cortissoz, Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1907), and The Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, edited by Homer Saint-Gaudens (2 vols., 1913).

Additional Sources

Wilkinson, Burke, The life and works of Augustus Saint Gaudens, New York: Dover; Gerrards Cross, England: C. Smythe, 1992. □

Saint-Gaudens, Augustus (b Dublin, 1 Mar. 1848; d Cornish, NH, 3 Aug. 1907). The leading American sculptor of his period. His parents (a French father and an Irish mother) settled in America when he was a baby. He began his career as a cameo cutter in New York, then studied for three years in Paris (1867–70) and three in Rome (1870–3), returning to America in 1874. His first important commission was the Admiral Farragut Monument (1878–81) in Madison Square Park, New York, and following its successful reception he quickly achieved a leading reputation among American sculptors and retained this throughout his life. Saint-Gaudens had great energy and he produced a large amount of work in spite of the high standards of craftsmanship he set himself. His preferred material was bronze and he excelled particularly at memorials. Although his style is generally warmly naturalistic, his most celebrated work, the Adams Memorial (1886–91) in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, is a powerful allegorical figure. It is a monument to a wife of a friend of Saint-Gaudens who had committed suicide, and the mysterious female figure, swathed in magnificent voluminous draperies, has been interpreted as ‘Grief’, although the sculptor himself saw the elegiac work as embodying ‘the Peace of God’. Saint-Gaudens was a highly important figure in the development of American sculpture; he turned the tide against Neoclassicism and made Paris, rather than Rome, the artistic mecca of his countrymen. From 1885 he spent his summers at Cornish, New Hampshire, and settled there in 1900; his studio was declared a national historic site in 1964. Casts of most of his works can be seen there.

Saint-Gaudens, Augustus (1848–1907). The leading American sculptor of his period. Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin of a French father and an Irish mother who settled in America when he was a baby. He began his career as a cameo-cutter in NewYork, then studied for three years in Paris (1867–70) and three in Rome (1870–3), returning to America in 1874. His first important commission was the Admiral Farragut Monument (1878–81) in Madison Square Park, New York, and following its successful reception he quickly achieved a leading reputation among American sculptors and retained this throughout his life. Saint-Gaudens was an energetic artist and he produced a large amount of work in spite of the high standards of craftsmanship he set himself. His preferred material was bronze and he excelled particularly at memorials. Although his style is generally warmly naturalistic, his most celebrated work, the Adams Memorial (1886–91) in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, is a powerful allegorical figure. It commemorates the wife of a friend of Saint-Gaudens who had committed suicide, and the mysterious female figure, swathed in magnificent voluminous draperies, has been interpreted as ‘Grief’, although the sculptor himself saw the elegiac work as embodying ‘the Peace of God’. Saint-Gaudens was a highly important figure in the development of American sculpture; he turned the tide against Neoclassicism and made Paris, rather than Rome, the artistic mecca of his countrymen.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens , 1848–1907, American sculptor, b. Dublin, Ireland. His family immigrated to New York when he was an infant. An apprentice in cameo cutting at 13, he gained mastery over low-relief sculpture. He had an unusual genius for plastic expression and an unfailing enthusiasm and industry. He studied drawing at Cooper Institute (now Cooper Union) and the National Academy of Design. Moving (1867) to Paris, he was trained at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and gained knowledge of the Italian Renaissance from his stay (1870–75) in Italy. He returned to America where his statue of Admiral Farragut (1881) for Madison Square, N.Y.C., set a new standard for public monuments and made Saint-Gaudens one the foremost Beaux-Arts sculptors in the United States and a strong influence in the development of American sculpture. Stanford White collaborated on the pedestal for this figure and several others. In 1887 the figure of Lincoln in Lincoln Park, Chicago, was completed. Other works that followed are Deacon Samuel Chapin ( The Puritan ), Springfield, Mass.; the Shaw Memorial, Boston Common; General Logan, Chicago; General Sherman, entrance to Central Park, New York City; and the seated Lincoln for the Chicago lakefront. Of the portrait tablets and plaques, most notable are Dr. McCosh, Princeton, N.J.; Robert Louis Stevenson for St. Giles, Edinburgh, Scotland; and charming low reliefs of children. Among his idealized figures is the veiled Adams Memorial, Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C., one of his most splendid works.

Bibliography: See his portrait reliefs (1969); biography by L. H. Tharp (1969). His brother, Louis, 1854–1913, was also a sculptor of talent.