Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site

Augustus Saint-Gaudens, born in 1848, is considered the sculptor of the American Renaissance. He is best known for his public monuments, such as the Sherman Monument in New York City's Central Park and his Standing Lincoln in Chicago. Perhaps his greatest achievement was the Shaw Memorial in Boston. This park is one of only two National Historic Sites dedicated to the arts. The grounds include his home, studio and sculpture gardens in Cornish, New Hampshire.

The Farragut Monument, (replica shown below) located in New York, was a collaborative work between architect Stanford White and Saint-Gaudens. The sculpture garden contains replicas of some of his most famous works.

Reflecting pond outside one of his studios.

Saint-Gaudens was originally trained as a bas-relief sculpturor and there are many examples of his bas-relief work throughout the grounds. He was able to produce works with very little depth and, because of this talent, he was chosen to design the $2.50, $5, $10 and $20 US gold coins.

One of his many works of Lincoln.
This statue, Victory, which is part of the General Sherman Monument, is now independently on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

This is a bust of General Sherman that was created as a character study prior to creating the Sherman Monument. The monument is on display in the Grand Army Plaza in New York City.

Picture this diminutive sculpture of Diana the Huntress as a rotating, 18 foot tall, gilded weather vane atop the tower of the newly built Madison Square Garden. It created quite a stir in 1893 because it was considered a public display of nudity. The goddess of Madison Square Garden was criticized at first, but eventually won New York's heart where she remained on display until 1932. She now resides in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Saint Gaudens created The Puritan between 1883 and 1886. On Thanksgiving Day, 1887, it was unveiled on Stearns Square in Springfield, Massachusetts.

The Shaw Memorial, commissioned in the early 1880's and dedicated in 1897, has been acclaimed as the greatest American sculpture of the nineteenth century. The relief masterfully depicts Colonel Shaw and the first African American infantry unit from the North to fight for the Union during the Civil War.

The Adams Memorial, completed in 1891, was commissioned by historian Henry Adams for his wife, Mariann Clover Adams, who had committed suicide. The question of how to commemorate a suicide, in an era when the act was widely considered a sin, presented a difficult challenge for Saint-Gaudens. Augustus, who could be notoriously slow, working and reworking a design, took five years to invent a solution.

Saint-Gaudens created several works of Lincoln, including this life-like bust.

Saint-Gaudens final resting place located on the grounds of his estate.