Gilded age sculpture of Augustus Saint-Gaudens

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), April, 2003

Heroism and nobility, sophistication and superb craftsmanship, the height of elegance and the end of an era--these are the elements of the traveling exhibition "Augustus Saint-Gaudens: American Sculptor of the Gilded Age," which features approximately 75 of his works.

The exhibition includes finished pieces in cast bronze and numerous studies for monuments, including "David Farragut," "Diana," "Abraham Lincoln," "Gen. William T. Sherman," and three of the artist's most-celebrated works: "The Puritan," the "Shaw Memorial," and the "Adams Memorial." The latter was commissioned by writer-philosopher Henry Adams as a tomb monument for his wife. The inclusion of the preliminary studies grants viewers an understanding of the sculptor's creative process, marked by intense thought and considerable trial and error.

"These large civic monuments are heroic in the grand tradition of Western art and reveal why Saint-Gaudens was considered the dean of American sculptors," says exhibition curator John Coffey, deputy director of collections and programs, North Carolina Museum of Art. "But a sculpture like the cloaked head of the figure from the `Adams Memorial,' deep in contemplation, and many of Saint-Gaudens' portraits offer private, even intimate studies of the human condition." Modeled in low bas-relief and cast in bronze, the sculptural portraits depict industrialists and financiers; blue-blooded women and children; and artists, architects, and writers, most notably Robert Louis Stevenson, shown propped up in bed and with pencil in hand.

Born in Dublin, Ireland, and raised in New York, Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) displayed a natural talent for art from an early age, and his studies took him not only to New York's Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design, but to Paris and Rome. Influenced by French and Italian art, he developed an ideal conception of beauty uniting European elegance with a distinctively American preference for factual naturalism.

Returning to New York in 1875 after an eight-year absence, the artist quickly established himself as a leader of what would become known as the American Renaissance. With architect Stanford White, Saint-Gaudens won his first major public commission, the monument to Civil War admiral David Farragut, and White commissioned Saint-Gaudens' well-known sculpture of "Diana," conceived in 1886 to crown the tower of New York City's original Madison Square Garden.

The exhibition also features Saint-Gaudens' decorative objects, jewelry, and coins, such as the famed "Double Eagle" $20 gold piece, commissioned by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt. The sculptures are supplemented with paintings by Saint-Gaudens' contemporaries.

"Augustus Saint-Gaudens: American Sculptor of the Gilded Age" is on view at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleign, through May 11. It will travel to The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, N.Y. (June 5-Aug. 3); Museum of the American Numismatic Association and the Colorado Springs (Colo.) Fine Arts Center (Aug. 28-Oct. 26); Allentown (Pa.) Art Museum (Nov. 20-Jan. 18, 2004); Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y. (Feb. 12-April 11, 2004); Frick Art and Historical Center, Pittsburgh, Pa. (May 6-July 4, 2004); Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens (July 29-Sept. 26, 2004); Montgomery (Ala.) Museum of Fine Arts (Oct. 21-Jan. 2, 2005); Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Mass. (Jan. 26-March 20, 2005); Wichita (Kan.) Art Museum (April 15-June 12, 2005); Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Fla. (July 7-Sept. 5, 2005); and Munson-Williams-Proctor Museum of Art, Utica, N.Y. (Sept. 29-Nov. 27, 2005)