Louise Adele Gould

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In his final of three portraits of Louise Adele Gould (1856-1883), Saint-Gaudens extended the sitter’s shoulders and terminated the bust with a horizontal line in the manner of quattrocento portraits by the likes of Francesco Laurana and Mino da Fiesole. The bust is mounted on a variegated yellow marble base of Italian origin. Gould believed this likeness of his late wife was "the most beautiful of the three designs," and lent it to the Saint-Gaudens memorial exhibition held at the Metropolitan in 1908 (he served on the exhibition organizing committee). When Gould became a trustee of the Museum in 1915, he donated the other two marble portraits of Louise Gould (15.105.1; 15.105.2), but retained this one until his death in 1931.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art