Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Kenyon Cox

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cox and Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907) met in Paris in the 1870s and exchanged portraits in 1887: an oil painting for a bronze relief. The original canvas was lost in Saint-Gaudens’s 1904 studio fire, so Cox created this replica in time for the Metropolitan Museum’s 1908 memorial exhibition of the sculptor’s work. Saint-Gaudens is shown in his New York studio, modeling in clay a portrait relief of the artist William Merritt Chase. A bronze likeness of the sculptor’s son, Homer, hangs on the wall (the Museum owns a marble replica; 05.15.2). Cox cleverly echoed his friend’s portrait reliefs by showing him in profile.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Augustus Saint-GaudensAugustus Saint-GaudensAugustus Saint-GaudensAugustus Saint-GaudensAugustus Saint-Gaudens

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.