BIOGRAPHY
Augustus Saint-Gaudens was the son of a French father and an Irish mother who brought him to New York as a child. He worked as a carver before traveling to Paris in 1867, where he entered the École des Beaux-Arts and worked under François Jouffroy. He was well-aware of the stylistic tendencies of his French contemporaries, and when he went to Italy during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, he studied early Renaissance sculptures. The influence of this can be seen in the series of fresh and and characterful portraits in very low relief that he made on his return to the United States, among them that of Robert Louis Stevenson (1887). Saint-Gaudens's elongated, nude statue of Diana the Huntress, designed in 1892 as a weather-vane for Madison Square Garden, New York (now Philadelphia Mus.), was also influenced by his study of sculpture, yet strayed significantly from classicism. His bronze figure of a mourner for the tomb of Mrs Henry Adams (1886–91) at Rock Creek cemetery, Washington, attempts to express a sense of Buddhist resignation within the Western formal tradition of the tomb weeper. However, Saint-Gaudens is perhaps best known for his series of ambitious monuments to heroes of the American Civil War. Among them are Admiral Farragut (1876–81) in New York, Robert Gould Shaw (1884–97) in Boston, and General Sherman (unveiled 1903) in New York.
Saint-Gaudens's combination of naturalism with simplicity, and an urge towards lofty allegory and symbolism, make him one of the most important figures in later 19th-century American art. His studio in the Cornish Hills of New Hampshire now contains a significant collection of his work.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens was the son of a French father and an Irish mother who brought him to New York as a child. He worked as a carver before traveling to Paris in 1867, where he entered the École des Beaux-Arts and worked under François Jouffroy. He was well-aware of the stylistic tendencies of his French contemporaries, and when he went to Italy during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, he studied early Renaissance sculptures. The influence of this can be seen in the series of fresh and and characterful portraits in very low relief that he made on his return to the United States, among them that of Robert Louis Stevenson (1887). Saint-Gaudens's elongated, nude statue of Diana the Huntress, designed in 1892 as a weather-vane for Madison Square Garden, New York (now Philadelphia Mus.), was also influenced by his study of sculpture, yet strayed significantly from classicism. His bronze figure of a mourner for the tomb of Mrs Henry Adams (1886–91) at Rock Creek cemetery, Washington, attempts to express a sense of Buddhist resignation within the Western formal tradition of the tomb weeper. However, Saint-Gaudens is perhaps best known for his series of ambitious monuments to heroes of the American Civil War. Among them are Admiral Farragut (1876–81) in New York, Robert Gould Shaw (1884–97) in Boston, and General Sherman (unveiled 1903) in New York.
Saint-Gaudens's combination of naturalism with simplicity, and an urge towards lofty allegory and symbolism, make him one of the most important figures in later 19th-century American art. His studio in the Cornish Hills of New Hampshire now contains a significant collection of his work.
RESOURCES
1. Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment
2. Works of art by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in the Crystal Bridges Museum collection:
Gertrude Vanderbilt at the Age of Seven ; Annie Page
1. Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment
2. Works of art by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in the Crystal Bridges Museum collection:
Gertrude Vanderbilt at the Age of Seven ; Annie Page
REFERENCES
Biography adapted from Osborne, Harold and Marc Jordan. "Saint-Gaudens, Augustus." The Oxford Companion to Western Art. Ed. Hugh Brigstocke. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web.<http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e2327>.
Artwork behind title: Augustus Saint-Gaudens's Gertrude Vanderbilt at the Age of Seven (detail), Crystal Bridges Museum
Biography adapted from Osborne, Harold and Marc Jordan. "Saint-Gaudens, Augustus." The Oxford Companion to Western Art. Ed. Hugh Brigstocke. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web.<http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e2327>.
Artwork behind title: Augustus Saint-Gaudens's Gertrude Vanderbilt at the Age of Seven (detail), Crystal Bridges Museum
