TAKIN BETZ: DAY 10 - SAINT-GAUDENS NATIONAL HISTORICAL SITE

July 9 –Today is a glorious day! Temps in the low 70’s, low humidity, puffy clouds against a North Carolina Blue sky. What to do today…..hum!

AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

Mt Ascutney or Mount Vesuvius

Decided we’d head over to Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site to see what’s up. Wow, were we impressed. First off….we got in free being “seniors” and all….the site is in Cornish, New Hampshire and the summer home of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, America’s most significant sculptor. He was born in Ireland in 1848 but family emigrated to the US when he was six months old. He apprenticed as a cameo cutter in his early teens and at nineteen went to Paris and Rome where he met his wife Augusta, a painter. He came up in the gilded age and had many post-civil war heros to memorialize.

We walked the grounds which were wonderful. Their summer home, called Aspet, had once been a tavern but it went defunct, remained vacant for several years and then Charles Beaman, a friend of Saint-Gaudens convinced him to come to Cornish NH as a possible second home, get out of New York city.

Augustus (GUS) came and was ready to leave but Augusta (GUSSIE) saw value in the home and the location. She felt this would be a good place for Gus to work and wanted to get away from New York city for a while.

Interestingly enough, Gus was in the process of sculpting the Standing Lincoln. He had the face done but needed models for the body. Beaman told Gus that Cornish NH was the land of Lincoln-shaped men. That convinced Saint-Gaudens to stay and a local farmer from Cornish served as the model for the Standing Lincoln body!

The views of Mt Ascutney are astounding. Mt Ascutney towers over Aspet in the distance. Saint-Gauden, influenced by all things Greek, said that Mt Ascutney was his own Mount Vesuvius reigning artistic influence down on him. Wonder how the State Park felt about that!

Gussie refurbished and furnished the home in a very casual, bohemian way. There are two Flemish tapestries that hang on the walls dating back to the 14th Century. The home was open to all of the artists that came to live in the Cornish Colony.

LITTLE STUDIO

They bought the property which consisted of 22 acres and the home for $2500. He built a large studio where his assistants worked and developed the concept and initial models for a sculpture directing his assistants in completing the work. Many artists followed Saint-Gaudens creating a dynamic social environment with Saint-Gaudens at the center. This was the vision started by George Beamon when he bought Blow-Me-Down Farm!

GRECIAN STYLE PORCH OF THE STUDIO LOOKING OUT ON MT ASCUTNEY

Saint-Gaudens was diagnosed with cancer in 1900 and decided to make Cornish his permanent home. He died in 1907. His wife established the Saint-Gaudens Memorial to preserve the site and in 1965 the site was donated to the National Park Service who maintains the site today.

His works is fascinating.

SHAW MEMORIAL

Truly, IMO, one of the most magnificent pieces of sculpture is the Shaw Memorial.

It was done in honor one of the first African-American units of the Civil War. Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54^th Regiment Memorial is located across from the State House in Boston. It is a reminder of a group of men who were among the first African Americans to fight in the Civil War. A clause in the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation made possible for African American volunteer regiments. African American men came from every region of the north and as far away as the Caribbean to enlist in the Massachusetts 54^th Volunteer Infantry.

During their attack on Fort Wagner, SC in 1863 Colonel Shaw was killed but a Sergeant William H. Carney, severely injured in the battle, saved the regiment’s flag from being captured. He was the first African American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. They also participated in the engagement on James Island, Battle of Olustee and at Honey Hill SC before returning to Boson. Of the 1,007 men who enlisted, only 598 returned home. Over 180,000 African Americans served in the Union Forces.

The detail on this relief is incredible. Unfortunately the entire piece was in the process of being cleaned so scaffolding was set up and I could not get a full shot. The girls who were working on it said that from the top of the scaffolding you can see the detail of Shaw’s hat, the braiding that went around it and the emblems on it. Look at the faces of these soldiers.

Colonel Shaw is on horseback with three rows of infantry men marching behind. From above the relief you can see the faces of soilders alongside the back of the horse. You can’t see that standing in front of the relief. The angel on top is either a Guardian Angel or the Angel of Death.

The scene is the 54^th Regiment marching down Beacon Street on May 28, 1863 as they left Boston to head south. It took Saint-Gaudens 14 years to complete and was unveiled in a ceremony on May 31, 1897.

Saint-Gaudens continued refining the design even after the bronze was installed. In 1900 a completed final version in plaster added inscription and made changes to the angel, horse and flags. In 1997 this bronze was cast by trustees of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial. Original plaster is now on loan to the National Gallery in Washington DC.

THE PURITAN

In 1881, Chester Chapin commissioned Saint-Gaudens to sculpt a bronze likeness of Deacon Samuel Chapin, one of the early settlers of the City of Springfield, MA. By 1881 Springfield was a major industrial center and one of the wealthiest cities in the US.

The statue was extremely popular with the public so smaller scale versions under the title “The Puritan” were produced. So if you think you’ve seen this before, you probably have. More than 25 slightly altered copies can be found in museums, art galleries, universities and private collections. There is a copy of it displayed in NY’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The City of Phildelphia commissioned one and Saint-Gaudens changed some of the characteristics to make it more “New England type”by elongating the features as well as altering the folds to make it unique. It’s located at Fairmont Park.

GENERAL SHERMAN

BUST OF GENERAL SHERMAN

MODEL FOR THE ANGEL IN THE GENERAL SHERMAN SCULPTURE

The sculpture of Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman, commissioned in 1888, was not started until 1897. He had earlier created a bust and the statue shows Sherman on horseback, striding forward with billowing cape. In front of the horse is a woman walking forward with her right arm outstretched representing victory. The palm branch in her left hand represents peace.

Originally the statue was going to be placed in front of Grant’s Tomb. As you can imagine, this caused some controversy in the early 1900s. Like what were they thinking! The sculpture is located at the SE entrance to Central Park and was unveiled in 1903.

COINS

If you don't know Saint-Gaudens by the sculptures, he is well known for his design of the US coins.

At the request of President Roosevelt in 1904, Saint-Gaudens designed three coins for the US Mint; the one cent piece and the $10 and $20 gold pieces. He wanted to evoke the beauty of high relief coins of ancient Greece and Rome. The gold pieces were issued in 1907 and minted until 1933. They are considered the most beautiful of American coins.

ADAMS MEMORIAL

Located in Rock Creek Church Cemetery, Wash DC, the Adams Memorial (1891) commissioned by historian Henry Adams for grave of his wife Marian “Clover” Hooper Adams. Adams stipulated that the figure not represent her but suggested images of the Buddha and Michaelangeo’s Sistine Chapel murals for inspiration. Adams’ name for it was “the Peace of God”, Saint-Gaudens called it “The Mystery of the Hereafter…beyond pain and beyond joy.” Keeping with abstraction, both male and female models were used.

MODEL USED FOR THE HEAD ON THE ADAMS TOMB

ADMIRAL DAVID G. FARRAGUT

Saint-Gaudens’ first public monument commemorates Civil War Admiral David Glasgow Farragut. It was unveiled in Madison Square Park in 1881 with great success. The soft bluestone deteriorated by 1935. Funded by a Federal grant, NYC recreated it in granite and donated the original to this site. The bronze replica cast 8’ 3” was made in 1994.

DIANA

Diana's story is an interesting one.

A NYC landmark sitting on top of Madison Square Garden building and currently owned by the Philadephia Museum of Art “Diana” was originally commissioned as a weathervane by Stanford White who owned MSG. It was not without its problems in the original design.

It was to be attached to the tower at the left toe and turn with the wind but the metal shop found it difficult to pass the rotating rod through the foot so the design changed to have the figure poised on its heel. It was an immense statue and did not rotate well. Gaudens tried draping a cloth on the statue to create a sail to catch the wind but it was soon blown away.

Gaudens determined that it was disproportionately large for the building so scaled it down. In September 1892 it was sent to the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition where Gaudens served as head of the fair’s sculpture committee. It was to be displayed on top of the Women’s Pavilion but the Women’s Christian Temperance Union protested insisting the nude be clothed! They had absolutely no sense of style or humor, not to mention fun!

It was placed on top of the Agricultural Building instead. Poor Diana….a fire broke out after the close of the Exposition and the bottom half was destroyed. The top half is … who knows where … maybe someone’s walled in back garden!

MODEL OF DIANA'S HEAD

A small version of Diana was completely redesigned to have an elegant pose with a different body thrust, thinner figure and more feminine angle of the leg. To better fit the top of Madison Square Garden it was scaled down to 13’ and hosted up November 1893. It was mounted as planned on its left toe and easily rotated in the wind. It was the first statue in history to be illuminated by electricity.

In 1925 Madison Square Garden was torn down to make room for the New York Life Building. Diana was removed and preserved. In 1932 the New York Life Insurance Company presented “Diana” to the Philadelphia Museum of Art as a gift and it is displayed at the top of its Grand Stair Hall.