Augustus Saint-Gaudens

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saint-Gaudens at his lathe sanding cameos around 1866

Augustus Saint-Gaudens (born March 1, 1848 in Dublin , † August 3, 1907 in Cornish , New Hampshire ) was an American sculptor of the 19th century who also created coin images. Saint-Gaudens is considered to be the most important sculptor of the historical Gilded Age .

Years of apprenticeship

Augustus was the son of Bernard Paul Ernest Saint-Gaudens, a French shoemaker with Huguenot ancestors who came from Aspet, a village in the Pyrenees and came to Ireland via England. Here Bernard married Mary McGuiness, an Irish woman. Half a year after Augustus was born, the family emigrated to New York . Augustus and his two younger brothers Andrew (1851-1891) and Louis (1854-1913) grew up in a household in which French and English were spoken equally fluently. In New York at the time there was a tremendous curiosity for everything French. A sign on Bernard's shop read "French ladies boots and shoes". The father did not make rough work boots, but shoes and boots for women and men and soon his clientele included members of the Astor , Belmont , Edwin D. Morgan and John Adam Dix families . These were all influential and able to advance Augustus' career. After graduating from school at the age of 13, he showed great interest in making art his profession and his father found him an apprenticeship with the camé grinder Louis Avet. He saw the three-year apprenticeship as “a miserable slavery” because his teacher was a choleric . His only ray of hope was the evening classes at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art , where he met Daniel Huntington and Emanuel Leutze . After leaving his first teacher, he was hired by Jules LeBrethon, also a cameo cutter, who gave him his first lessons in modeling. He was taking evening drawing classes at the National Academy of Design , which was then on Twenty-third Street and Park Avenue, next to his father's shoe store.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens painted in his studio by Kenyon Cox in 1888

The decisive moment in his life came in 1867 when his father offered him the opportunity to go to Paris to visit the International Exposition . Here he began his training as a sculptor at the Petite École while waiting for admission to the École des Beaux-Arts . In the afternoons he worked as a camé cutter to make a living. The following year was recorded in François Jouffroy's studio. Admission by a teacher from the École was a prerequisite for matriculation and Jouffroy was one of the best teachers. Saint-Gaudens' French studies were not only technical, but also included courses in architecture, geometry, history, anatomy and perspective. His good knowledge of French undoubtedly made it easier for him to gain acceptance in both schools and in understanding the subject matter. In 1870 Saint-Gaudens left Paris because of the approaching Franco-Prussian War and settled in relatively safe Rome .

He stayed in Rome for the next five years and studied ancient art and architecture. There he met other American artists, such as William Wetmore Story , William Henry Rinehart and Harriet Goodhue Hosmer . He rented a studio in the Palazzo Barberini . He continued to carve cameos, copied sculptures for foreign clients and in 1872 created his first life-size sculpture in marble, the Indian chief Hiawatha , based on a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . Saint-Gaudens vowed that he "would amaze the world" with his sophisticated early work and, indeed, he sold the unique marble figure to Edwin D. Morgan , a former governor of New York. While still in Rome, in 1874, he received his first important commission for a marble sculpture Silence for the new Masonic Lodge on Twenty-third Street in New York (now in the Tomkins Memorial Chapel of the Masonic Home, Utica, NY).

In Rome he met the American art student Augusta Fisher Homer and fell in love with her.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens with his wife, before 1907

After his mother's death, Saint-Gaudens returned to New York in 1875. He needed work to ask for his daughter's hand from his future father-in-law. After many eager petitions and with the recommendation of John Quincy Adams Ward , the Farragut Monument Committee of New York commissioned the young artist with the monument in honor of the first admiral of the US Navy, David Farragut . With that contract in hand, he was able to convince the Homers that he was able to support their daughter Augusta. Just 11 days after signing the contract, Saint-Gaudens and Augusta Homer married in 1877 and left New York for Paris. They were called Gus and Gussie among friends .

The sculptor

In 1878, Saint-Gaudens' friends, the architects Stanford White and Charles Follen McKim , came to Paris for a visit. Saint-Gaudens invited White to stay and so began their first collaboration on the pedestal and environment for the Farragut monument in the French capital. This friendship and working relationship with the two architects lasted a lifetime.

Saint-Gaudens exhibited the plaster of paris of the Farragut Monument in the Paris Salon of 1880, along with relief medallions from his friends Dr. Henry Shiff and the artists William Gedney Bunce , George W. Maynard , Francis Davis Millet and William Lamb Picknell . For this he received an honorable mention. After the Farragut was successfully cast in bronze by Adolphe Gruet in Paris in 1880, Saint-Gaudens traveled to America with his wife. Augusta left the ship in Boston and stayed with her parents, where she awaited the birth of her first child. Augustus traveled on to New York to oversee the erection and installation of the monument. After the birth of their son Homer in the fall of 1880, mother and child traveled to Saint-Gaudens in New York. He became famous when he was commissioned in 1878 to design a memorial in honor of Civil War Admiral David Glasgow Farragut .

With the number of assignments he received in the 1880s, there was soon more work in his studio than he and his brother Louis could handle on their own. Philip Martiny and Frederick MacMonnies were hired to help; thus began Saint-Gaudens' equally influential teaching and mentoring career to train the next generation of emerging artists.

After the Farragut Memorial was created, Saint-Gaudens received three more Civil War memorial commissions: The Standing Lincoln (1887, Lincoln Park, Chicago), the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial (1897, Boston Common), and the General John Logan Memorial (1897 , Michigan Avenue, Chicago).

Portrait reliefs

Relief portraits and busts

Saint-Gaudens' most outstanding achievements include his portrait reliefs. The bas-relief , which is considered to be the most difficult and complex type of sculpture, is often compared to “drawing on clay”. The relief as such is not concerned with the actual form, but with the appearance of the shape. Details and perspective must be conveyed through the use of light and shadow on the fine contours of the surface.

Saint-Gaudens used a variety of different materials for his reliefs, such as bronze, wood, marble and plaster; they show a vitality and liveliness that is otherwise hard to find in this art form.

His works demonstrate not only the beauty of the composition, but also the delicacy of expression and insight into the character of what is depicted. The wall painter Kenyon Cox called Saint-Gaudens "the most perfect master of relief since the 15th century".

Many famous people, such as Cornelius Vanderbilt and Samuel Gray Ward, commissioned Saint-Gaudens to make portraits of their families and of themselves.

The result was the creation of more than 100 portrait reliefs. The range of works ranged from bas-reliefs, such as those by his wife Augusta, the neighbor boy William E. Beaman, the banker's children Mortimer Leo and Frieda Fanny Schiff and that of the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson , one of his most famous motifs, to the extreme high relief of Louise Howland.

Society of American Artists

Augustus Saint-Gaudens around 1905

Unhappy and upset that the National Academy had rejected one of his sculptures, Saint-Gaudens founded Richard Watson Gilder, the publisher of Century Magazine , with his wife, painter Helena DeKay Gilder, and artists Walter Shirlaw and, in June 1877 Wyatt Eaton the Society of American Artists . In the following years the Society joined R. Swain Gifford, Louis C. Tiffany, Olin Warner, Homer D. Martin Samuel Coleman, John La Farge, Thomas Moran, J. Alden Weir, Thomas Eakins, Eastman Johnson, George Inness, Alexander Helwig Wyant and others contribute to the organization. The society exhibited the work of artists who did not follow a formal style, such as B. Albert Pinkham Ryder.

The society remained active for approximately 20 years before being absorbed into the National Academy.

In 1893 Augustus Saint-Gaudens was one of the founding members of the National Sculpture Society with Daniel Chester French , Stanford White and John Quincy Adams Ward , which set itself the task of spreading the knowledge of good sculpture. ). The Society (NSS) is still active today and supports sculpture as an active, lively and non-profit organization.

Saint-Gaudens' admiration for the art and architecture of the Renaissance , especially the reliefs and medals of the period, had a lasting effect on his artistic style, which was characterized by a very personal interpretation of 15th century realism and ancient heritage - a synthesis that would in turn influence American sculpture in the late 19th century. In 1896 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

He was a member of the MacMillan Commission, which was founded in 1901 and was supposed to make proposals for the architectural and artistic improvement as well as for the preservation of the old core of the American capital. The famous committee included Senator James McMillan of Michigan as chairman and Charles Moore as secretary, Daniel Burnham, visionary of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, as well as landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. , and architect Charles F. McKim.

During his life he had hired and trained many assistants, some of whom became famous, such as James Earle Fraser , Frances Grimes , Henry Hering , Charles Keck , Mary Lawrence , Frederick MacMonnies , Philip Martiny , Helen Mears , Robert Paine (1870 -1946), American. Sculptors, Alexander Phimister Proctor , Louis Saint-Gaudens , Elsie Ward and Adolph Alexander Weinman .

family

Plaster medallion of Novy (Louis P. Clark) by Augustus Saint-Gaudens 1892

With his first wife Augusta Homer, Saint-Gaudens had a son, Homer Schiff Saint-Gaudens, who was born in 1880. He became a writer and art critic. He was the director of the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and had three children: Augustus II, Harold, and Carlota. Homer died in 1958.

Saint-Gaudens had another son named Louis (nickname: Novy), born in 1889 together with his long-time lover and muse Davida Johnson Clark. (1861-1910). Louis Clark attended MIT in Boston for a year . He then went to California and attended Stanford University , where he studied engineering. He later worked in a hospital. He was married with three sons and died in 1958. Augusta, Saint-Gaudens' wife, ensured that Louis received a legacy of US $ 25,000.

When Augusta Saint Gaudens found out about the extramarital relationship with Davida Clark, she and her son had to go into exile in Darien, Connecticut, where Augustus secretly visited her and their son Louis Clark. The last work Davida modeled for him was for the Garfield Monument, which Saint-Gaudens completed in 1895.

Davida's real name was Albertina Lundgren and she was a native of Sweden. She was Saint-Gauden's model for "Amor Caritas" in 1898 and for the face of "Diana" in 1892. Davida died of colon cancer on September 15, 1910 and was buried in Darien, CT.

In the Reminicences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, his son Homer, who revised the two volumes, deleted any reference to his half-brother.

Medals and Coins

He designed commemorative medals for the centenary of George Washington's inauguration in 1889, the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 Special Inaugural Medal.

At the request of President Theodore Roosevelt , Saint-Gaudens designed three coins for the US Mint in 1904: a 1-cent piece and the 10 and 20 dollar gold coins. Roosevelt and Saint-Gaudens wanted to revive the beauty of the high relief coins of ancient Greece and Rome. With this commission, Saint-Gaudens became the first sculptor to design a complete American coin. After initial problems in making coins with such a high relief, gold coins were finally put into circulation a few months after Saint-Gaudens' death in 1907. These St. Gaudens Double Eagles continued to be minted until 1933.

In 1900, at Saint-Gaudens cancer diagnosed and he underwent surgery in Boston. Despite dwindling strength, he continued his work for the next seven years, creating reliefs and public monuments in constant succession.

Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park

The Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park in Cornish , New Hampshire , is dedicated to the memory of the work of the sculptor.

Works (selection)

literature

  • Saint-Gaudens, Augustus . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 29 : Rosa – Scheffauer . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1935, p. 321 .
  • Burke Wilkinson: Uncommon Clay the Life and Works of Augustus Saint Gaudens. Audio Book Contractors 1991, ISBN 1-55685-182-0 .
  • Craven Armstrong: 200 Years of American Sculpture. Whitney Museum of Art, New York City 1976.
  • Graham Balfour: The life of Robert Louis Stevenson. Volume I, Methuen, London 1901 ( archive.org ).
  • Paul Clemen: The Art. Munich 1910.
  • Wayne Craven: Sculpture in America. Thomas Y. Crowell Co. 1968.
  • John H. Dryfhout: Augustus Saint-Gaudens: The Portrait Reliefs. The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Grossman Publishers, New York City 1969.
  • John H. Dryfhout: The 1907 United States Gold Coinage. Eastern National Park & ​​Monument Association 1996.
  • John H. Dryfhout: The Works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. University Press of New England, Hannover 1982.
  • Kathryn Greenthal: Augustus Saint-Gaudens, master sculptor. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City 1985 ( libmma.contentdm.oclc.org e-book).
  • Donald Martin Reynalds: Masters of American Sculpture: The Figurative Tradition From the American Renaissance to the Millennium. Abbeville Press, New York City 1993.
  • C. Lewis Hind: Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The International Studio, John Lane Company; New York 1908 ( archive.org ).
  • Homer Saint-Gaudens (ed.): The Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The Century Co., New York, 1913 (Volume 1, archive.org , Volume 2, archive.org ).
  • Abraham Lincoln Monument. Landmark in the City of Chicago. ( Text archive - Internet Archive ).
  • Augustus Saint-Gaudens. In: Joseph Husband: Americans by adoption; letter biographies of great citizens born in foreign lands. Atlantic Monthly Press, Boston 1920 ( Text Archive - Internet Archive ).
  • Thayer Tolles: Augustus Saint-Gaudens in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Metropolitan Museum, New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-300-15188-6 (exhibition catalog).

Web links

Commons : Augustus Saint-Gaudens  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hiawatha, 1871-72; carved 1874 by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Marble statue 236.2 × 87.6 × 94.6 cm.
  2. ↑ John Quincy Adams. In: Famous American.
  3. ^ Charles Follen McKim. In: Encyclopædia Britannica.
  4. ↑ Standord White. In: Encyclopædia Britannica.
  5. ↑ Dr. Henry Shiff at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
  6. ↑ William Gedney Bunce (1840-1916)
  7. ↑ George W. Maynard (1843–1923) ( Memento of the original from April 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.npg.si.edu
  8. ↑ William Lamb Picknell (1854-1897): An American Artist Emersonian
  9. ^ William Henry II and Cornelius Vanderbilt III bronze relief 1882 by Saint-Gaudens.
  10. ↑ National Sculpture Society (NSS) ( Memento of the original from April 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nationalsculpture.org
  11. ^ US Senate Committee on the District of Columbia. Senate Report No. 166, 57th Congress, 1st Session. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1902.
  12. ↑ Bust of Davida Clark in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  13. ↑ Musée Louvre.
  14. ↑ Photo of Davida Clark with her son Louis Clark.
  15. ^ The Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Medal.
  16. ↑ 2009 Ultra High Relief Gold Coin. on YouTube
personal data
SURNAME Saint-Gaudens, Augustus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sculptor who also created coin images
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin
DATE OF DEATH August 3, 1907
Place of death Cornish , New Hampshire