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| Boston: Tribute to the Union Army's 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment |
As you read this, we're entertaining out-of-state friends who are up for their annual Fall Foliage visit. I'm writing this ahead of time on Sunday (9/29), anticipating Monday's arrival of John's former UTC co-workers and long time friends Ed & Sue Shaw and Steve & Terri DesRoches. The plan for Tuesday is a round of golf for the men while we women tour Saint-Gaudens National Historic Park in Cornish NH.
I wrote about Saint-Gaudens NHP here about ten years ago, but it's worth another visit. It was the home of 19th century sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907). Born in Dublin, Ireland, he first visited Cornish NH in 1885 and eventually purchased the property that became his year-round home and the home of the Cornish Art Colony. The property, now owned and managed by the National Park Service, is about two hours from Windsor Locks – an easy day trip and a lovely destination for a sunny afternoon. The grounds feature his home and studio; replicas of some of his well-known works are scattered throughout.
If you’re not a close follower of art or don’t live in the upper valley of the Connecticut River, you may never have heard of Saint-Gaudens – but you may have seen his art, which includes:
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| "Diana" atop the old Madison Square Garden |
“Diana”: sent to Chicago in 1892 to adorn the Women’s Pavilion at the 1893 Columbian Exposition - until members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union protested the nude figure, after which Diana was banished to the roof of the Agricultural Pavilion. The statue was destroyed in a fire after the Exposition closed, but in 1893 Saint-Gaudens produced another Diana, smaller and lighter, commissioned to serve as the weathervane atop the original Madison Square Garden. When the old Madison Square Garden was torn down in 1925, Diana retired from civil service and has since resided at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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| "Standing Lincoln" |
“Standing Lincoln”: Augustus Saint-Gaudens was a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln, and in the 1880’s won a design competition to create a statue of the President for Chicago’s Lincoln Park. When the 12-foot bronze Lincoln was unveiled in 1887, the New York Post described it as “the most important achievement American sculpture has yet produced”. A copy of the statue also stands near Westminster Abbey in London.
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| Statue of General William Tecumseh Sherman in Central Park |
Closer to home, the artist’s gilded statue of General William Tecumseh Sherman greets visitors to New York’s Central Park at the Grand Army Plaza on Fifth Avenue. The statue recently underwent a two-million dollar renovation due in part to the city’s "pigeons of Grand Army Plaza - among the shrewdest, toughest birds in America".
Saint-Gaudens was a master not only of sculpture, but also of bas-relief. Across the street from Boston’s State House is his tribute to Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, unveiled in 1897 (see picture at the top of this story).
The 54th was the first African American regiment assembled in the North during the Civil War. Sergeant William Carney of that regiment was the first African American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Saint-Gaudens’ memorial depicts Shaw and his men as they marched down Beacon Street to head South to battle. Their story was the subject of the 1989 Denzel Washington/Matthew Broderick film “Glory”.
One of Saint-Gaudens’ final efforts came in 1904 at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt, who asked the sculptor to design the U.S. $10 and $20 gold coins. The coins were issued just a few months after the artist’s death in 1907 and continued to be minted until 1933. The $20 double eagle coin remains one of the most valuable for collectors.
