Sculptor, born in Dublin, Ireland. His parents emigrated to New York City in 1848. He was apprenticed to cameo cutters (18617), studied at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design (18647), then in Paris (1867), and established a studio in Rome (18702). He travelled throughout his life, but set up a studio in New York City (187597) and maintained a summer home and studio, Aspet, in Cornish, NH, later to become a national historic site (1964). Considered the major American sculptor in the beaux-arts style, he created many commissioned works for John La Farge, Stanford White, and Charles McKim, among others, and was a founder of the Society of American Artists (1877). He is honoured for his coin designs, and among his many fine works is Grief, his sculpture for the grave site of Mrs Henry Adams (188691), the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial (188497, a commemoration of Shaw's leadership of a black Civil War division), and the equestrian sculpture of General Sherman (18971903).
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (Dublin, March 1, 1848 - Cornish, New Hampshire, August 3, 1907), was the Irish-born American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who most embodied the ideals of the "American Renaissance." Raised in New York City, he traveled to Europe for further training and artistic study, and then returned to major critical success in the design of monuments commemorating heroes of the American Civil War, many of which still stand. Logan, atop a tumulus in Chicago, 1894-97, and William Tecumseh Sherman, at the corner of New York's Central Park, 1892-1903, Saint-Gaudens also maintained an interest in numismatics and designed the twenty-dollar "double eagle" gold piece, for the US Mint in 1905-7, still considered the most beautiful American coin ever issued. In his later years he founded the "Cornish Colony," an artistic colony that included notable painters, sculptors, writers, and architects.
Early life and career
Raised in New York, after his parents immigrated to America when he was six months of age, he was apprenticed to a cameo-cutter, but also took art classes at the Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design.
Civil War commemorative commissions
In 1876 he received his first major commission;
The commissions followed fast: the colossal Standing Lincoln in Lincoln Park, Chicago in a setting by architect White, 1884 - 87, considered the finest portrait statue in the United States; Logan Monument, the greatest of which is the bronze bas-relief that forms the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial on Boston Common, 1884 - 1897, Saint-Gaudens labored on it for fourteen years, and even after the public version had been unveiled, he continued with further versions.
Teacher and advisor
His prominence brought him students, and he was an able and sensitive teacher.
Through his career Augustus Saint-Gaudens' made a specialty of intimate private portrait panels in sensitive, very low relief, which owed something to the Florentine Renaissance.
Coinage
He referred to his early relief portraits as "medallions" and took a great interest in the art of the coin: his twenty-dollar gold piece, the "double eagle" coin he designed for the US Mint, 1905-7, though it was adapted for minting, is still considered the most beautiful American coin ever issued.
Chosen by Theodore Roosevelt to redesign the coinage of the nation at the beginning of the 20th century, Saint-Gaudens produced a beautiful high-relief $20 gold piece that was adapted into a flattened-down version by the United States Mint.
Two major versions of his coins are known as the "Saint Gaudens High Relief Roman Numerals 1907" and the "Saint Gaudens Arabic Numerals 1907-1933."
The Saint-Gaudens obverse design was reused in the American Eagle gold bullion coins that were instituted in 1986.
Later life, founder of the Cornish Colony
Diagnosed with cancer in 1900, he decided to live at his Federal house with barn-studio set in the handsome gardens he had made, where he and his family had been spending summers since 1885, in Cornish, New Hampshire— though not in retirement;
At Cornish, New Hampshire, Saint-Gaudens and his brother Louis attracted a summer colony of artists. Many other well known artists followed Saint-Gaudens to Cornish, forming what became known as the "Cornish Colony." Included were painters Maxfield Parrish, Thomas Dewing, George Deforest Brush and Kenyon Cox, dramatist Percy MacKaye, the American novelist Winston Churchill, architect, Charles A.
His life-size sculpture representing the Boston Massacre was unfinished at his death, but as of 1995 is undergoing restoration at the National Historic Site.
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