Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907). American sculptor of the Gilded Age

Federal Office of Cultural Affairs

Ligornetto, 09.06.2006 - The principal temporary exhibition at the Vela Museum during 2006 is devoted to Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907), the leading figure in American sculpture during America’s Gilded Age, the period that followed the Civil War (1861–65).

The exhibition is part of the series mounted by the Vela Museum that, in confirmation of the international significance of the art and fame of Vincenzo Vela, displays, alongside the Swiss artist’s monumental sculptures, the works of artists of equal level and cultural irradiation active in different historic and cultural settings. Indeed, the influence that Augustus Saint-Gaudens had on American sculpture through his work and teaching is comparable to the impact that the “Vela school” had on the Italian art world at the end of the Ottocento. This exhibition offers the Swiss and international public the opportunity to discover and appreciate an unknown artist – in the same way that all of American art prior to World War II is little known. Only France – the country where the artist’s father was born – has so far dedicated a monographic exhibition to Saint-Gaudens (1999), though well deserving of mention was the presence of 29 of the sculptor’s works at the World Exhibition in Rome in 1911.
 
Born in 1848 to a French father and an Irish mother who had emigrated to the United States, Saint-Gaudens spent many years in Europe, first in Paris (1867–70), then Italy (1870–75) where he perfected his training as a sculptor and engraver and began his dazzling career sustained by wealthy, influential American clients who lived in the Eternal City. His admiration for Renaissance art and architecture – especially the reliefs and medals of the period – was to influence his stylistic choices; these were characterised by his personal interpretation of the realism of the fifteenth-century and the legacy of antiquity, a synthesis of which was, in turn, to influence American sculpture of the late nineteenth-century. Further his influence was of paramount importance for the foundation of the American Academy in Rome.
 
Amongst the best-known works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens are the public monuments to the heroes of the American Civil War and his extraordinary and refined relief portraits. His public monuments – which, like Vincenzo Vela, he set great value on – include the moving Shaw Memorial (1897), executed in honour of the famous Massachusetts 54th Regiment and its commander Robert Gould Shaw; this was a benchmark composition in that it included the first portraits of African-American soldiers in sculpture. Others are the standing portrait of President Abraham Lincoln for Chicago (1887), the dynamic Monument to Admiral David Farragut (1881) for New York, and the late, powerful Monument to General Sherman which depicts the soldier in subtle psychological introspection, and was inaugurated in New York in 1903. These monumental works are represented in the exhibition through sketches, models, reductions and studies.
Alongside these sculptures of patriots and heroes the modern public will find Saint-Gaudens’ beautiful relief portraits of particular interest. Often in large format, these are of artists, intellectuals, friends, acquaintances, adults and children, as well as internationally renown clients, and reveal the artist’s great delicacy in the treatment of the texture – the material surface is rendered almost as if they were paintings made from bronze – and the subtle psychological studies of the sitters.
 
The exhibition was conceived by the Trust for Museum Exhibitions (Washington, D.C.) and the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site (Cornish, New Hampshire) and is curated by the Museo Vela. It consists in 60 works in bronze, plaster and high-quality materials (used in the decorative works produced during the artist’s early career). The exhibition catalogue (85 pages, F/E, CHF.30.--) is the only publication in Italian that examines in detail aspects of the sculpture and cultural background of America of that period.

June 11 – October 1 2006
Tuesday-Sunday/10.00-18.00
Museo Vela
CH-6853-Ligornetto (Switzerland)
Tel 0041 91 640 70 40

Museum, exhibition and park: CHF 10.-/6.-
Exhibition catalogue, 85 pages(I/E) : CHF30.-

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