SaintGaudens

Saint-Gaudens refers to Augustus Saint-Gaudens, a leading American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts era (1848–1907). Born in Dublin, Ireland, he moved with his family to the United States and settled in New York. He studied at the Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design before continuing his training in Paris, where he absorbed French academic sculpture and classical motifs. Returning to the United States, he established himself as a prolific sculptor of monumental and portrait works.

Saint-Gaudens produced numerous public sculptures and reliefs, many commissioned for urban and national settings. Notable works include the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial on Boston Common, which depicts the colonel and his regiment during the Civil War; the Adams Memorial, an austere seated figure often called Grief, in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C.; and a number of busts and reliefs of political and military figures. He also designed the United States’ Saint-Gaudens double eagle, a $20 gold coin celebrated for its artistry and technical excellence.

From the late 1890s, he oversaw large sculptural ensembles and coin design that helped shape American sculpture. He resided and worked in New York and at his estate in Cornish, New Hampshire, where his home and studio complex is preserved as the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service. He died in 1907 in Cornish.