Saint-Gaudens, Augustus (sānt-gôd`ənz), 1848–1907, American sculptor, b. Dublin, Ireland. An apprentice in cameo cutting, he gained mastery over sculpture in low relief. He had an unusual genius for plastic expression and an unfailing enthusiasm and industry. He was trained at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and gained knowledge of the Italian Renaissance from his stay (1870–73) in Italy. Saint-Gaudens became the foremost sculptor in the United States and a strong influence in the development of American sculpture. In 1881 his statue of Admiral Farragut for Madison Square, New York City, set a new standard for public monuments. Stanford White White, Stanford, 1853–1906, American architect, b. New York City; son of Richard Grant White. In 1872 he entered the office of Gambrill and Richardson in Boston, at the time when H. H. Richardson was at the peak of his fame.
..... Click the link for more information. 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 lake front. 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 ideal figures is the 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.

Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

(born March 1, 1848, Dublin, Ire.—died Aug. 3, 1907, Cornish, N.H., U.S.) Irish-born U.S. sculptor. Son of an Irish mother and a French father, he was brought to the U.S. in infancy and at 13 was apprenticed to a cameo cutter. He studied sculpture in New York and at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1867–70), then settled in New York City in 1872. Between 1880 and 1897 he executed most of the works that earned him his reputation as the foremost American sculptor of the late 19th century. His first important commission was the monument to David Farragut (1878–81) in New York's Madison Square Park. For Boston he produced his great relief monument to Col. Robert G. Shaw and his African American Civil War regiment (1884–97). The memorial to the wife of Henry Adams (1886–91) in Washington, D.C., a mysterious draped figure with a shadowed face, is often considered his greatest work.

Saint-Gaudens, Augustus (1848–1907) sculptor; born in Dublin, Ireland. His parents emigrated to New York City in 1848. He was apprenticed to cameo cutters (1861–67), studied at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design (1864–67), in Paris (1867), and established a studio in Rome (1870–72). He traveled throughout his life, but set up a studio in New York City (1875–97), and maintained a summer home and studio, Aspet, in Cornish, N.H., 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 honored for his coin designs; Grief, his sculpture for the grave site of Mrs. Henry Adams (1886–91); the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial (1884–97), a commemoration of Shaw's leadership of a black Civil War division; and the equestrian sculpture of General Sherman (1897–1903), among many other fine works.