New Gallery and Atrium at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park

The New Gallery and Atrium at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park stand on the grounds of the former Large Studio, the first studio built by Augustus Saint-Gaudens after he decided to live in Cornish, New Hampshire, year-round in 1900. The Large Studio burned down in October 1904, resulting in the loss of all ongoing projects and many of Saint-Gaudens’ personal items. In its place, an even larger studio was built called the Studio of the Caryatids, named for two statues of Caryatids—a draped, Greek-style female figure that usually serves as a support column for a building—that stood on either side of the entrance. Saint-Gaudens sculpted the Caryatids for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, and apparently cast two extras for himself.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ gilded relief sculpture Amor Caritas in the courtyard of the New Gallery and Picture Gallery at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park

When Saint-Gaudens’ wife, Augusta, died in 1926, the house and property were opened to the public, and the Studio of the Caryatids was used as an art gallery where some of Saint-Gaudens’ larger sculptures were displayed. Unfortunately, the studio burned down in 1944, destroying everything inside. An adjacent shed and chicken coop were left untouched, and between 1946 and 1948 these buildings were remodeled and enlarged to create art galleries, with the shed becoming the New Gallery and the chick coop the Picture Gallery. The Atrium was constructed at this time as well to join the two buildings together, and today it holds a number of Saint-Gaudens’ busts and bas-relief sculptures.

Artworks of August Saint-Gaudens on display in the Atrium, Saint Gaudens National Historical Park

Guests of Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park can visit the New Gallery and Atrium on their own whenever the park is open. Inside is a collection of Saint-Gaudens’ bas-relief portraits, cameos (small bas-relief portrait medallions usually carved in stone or shell), busts, plaster versions of a few larger sculptures, and the 1907 coins he designed.

Inside the New Gallery at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park

Saint-Gaudens was commissioned in 1905 by the United States government at the urging of President Theodore Roosevelt to design a new $20, $10, $5, and $2 ½ gold piece, making him the first artist given the privilege and setting a precedent of having prominent American artists design coins up through the 1950s. Saint-Gaudens was suffering from cancer at the time, so the coins were some of the last projects he worked on before his death in 1907. In fact, he only completed the $20 and $10 coins, and he died before seeing them enter circulation.

Saint-Gaudens’ $20 Gold Piece (photo by Money Metals)

Saint-Gaudens’ original designs were done with a high bas-relief, much too high to mass produce. The coins took nine strikes of the die—a typical coin in circulation takes one—giving them an appearance more like medallions than coins. Less than two dozen were minted.

The design was amended, this time allowing a coin to be produced with only three strikes of the die. Twelve thousand were minted in 1907, but these too were not suitable for mass production. A one-strike coin, or business strike, was also minted in 1907. Over 361,000 of these low-relief coins were put into circulation along with the high-relief coins. Other than the apparent degree of relief, the coins can be told apart by the date: the high-relief coins have a Roman numeral date and the low-relief have an Arabic numeral date.

Saint-Gaudens’ $20 and $10 gold pieces remained in production from 1907 to 1933. Starting in 1986, the obverse side (front side) of the $20 coin was revived to adorned the American Gold Eagle, the official gold bullion coin of the United States.

The following photo is of $20 coins on display at the Field Museum in Chicago. The coin on the left is a high-relief 1907 version, whereas the coin on the right is a standard business strike from 1924. The bottom is the reverse side of a coin. In God We Trust was not printed on the coins for the first few years. Coins are also on display at the New Studio, but it is difficult to get close-up photos due to the display case.

High-relief vs. low-relief coins (photo by James Hennigan)

Saint-Gaudens-designed American gold coins on display in the New Gallery at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park

If you visited Saint-Gaudens’ house, Aspet, you may have seen a portrait of Augusta and Homer Saint-Gaudens (wife and son) by John Singer Sargent. This was done in exchange for Saint-Gaudens doing a bas-relief portrait of Sargent’s sister, Violet. The original artwork is now on display in the New Gallery.

Violet Sargent bas-relief sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Another bas-relief portrait on display is of Charles Beaman, the man who brought Saint-Gaudens to Cornish and helped establish the Cornish Artist Colony. Beaman was a big art lover and felt that if he could get his friend to start coming to Cornish for the summers that other artists would soon follow. He purchased what is now Aspet in 1884 and rented it to Saint-Gaudens each summer until the famed sculptor purchased the property in 1891. Beaman also owned much of the surrounding land and rented it to artists as the Cornish Colony grew. At the peak of its popularity, approximately two hundred artists lived in Cornish and other nearby towns.

Charles Beaman bas-relief sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Just off the Atrium is a bust of Abraham Lincoln that was used on Saint-Gaudens’ Standing Lincoln sculpture for Chicago’s Lincoln Park (a casting is located outdoors on the grounds of Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park). This bust was cast in 1911 but only installed in the Atrium in 1967. It replaced a plaster casting of the same bust.

Bust of Abraham Lincoln on display just outside the Atrium at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park

Bust of Abraham Lincoln on display just outside the Atrium at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park

One of the largest pieces on display in the New Gallery is a bas-relief sculpture in plaster of author Robert Lewis Stevenson that was done in 1893. The original was actually a round and much smaller artwork that depicted Stevenson writing in bed while holding a cigarette (and was cropped at the knees). This was cast in bronze for the writer, and numerous other castings were commissioned by various museums and private individuals. The plaster casting on display is the third version. This was commissioned in 1900 by the Saint Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland (Stevenson was from Edinburgh). In a bit of forward thinking, the church insisted that the cigarette be changed to a pen.

Bas-relief portrait of Robert Lewis Stevenson by Augustus Saint-Gaudens

A personal favorite of mine is The Puritan. This was commissioned in 1881 by railroad tycoon and congressman Chester Chapin. He wanted a memorial for one of his ancestors, Deacon Samuel Chapin, a founder of Springfield, Massachusetts. There was no known photo of the deacon, so Saint-Gaudens was asked to create something that represented the man. The original sculpture, which is full size, was unveiled in 1887 in Springfield’s Stearns Square; it was moved to Merrick Park in 1899. In 1894, Saint-Gaudens began making reductions of the sculpture due to its popularity. Around forty were made, and these are now in museums and private collections.

The Puritan by Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Saint-Gaudens was a big admirer of Abraham Lincoln, and he created two large sculptures of him, one being the aforementioned Standing Lincoln. In 1897 he was commissioned by the executors of the will of John Crerar, who left money for a Lincoln memorial sculpture to be placed at a library for which he also left money, the John Crerar Library in Chicago’s Grant Park. His work on the project was destroyed in the 1904 Large Studio fire, so he had to start all over. He was able to complete the design before his death in 1907, though the final casting of what became known as the Sitting Lincoln was finished by his assistants in 1908. By this time construction on the library had been halted by a lawsuit, so the sculpture was displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and at the World’s Fair in San Francisco before being put into storage. It wasn’t until 1926 that the Sitting Lincoln was finally installed at Grant Park. On display inside the New Gallery is a reduction casting of the sculpture done in plaster.

Reduction casting of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Sitting Lincoln in the New Gallery at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park

One final exhibit of note is a collection of interim working models for Saint-Gaudens’ Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Infantry Memorial. The original casting now resides in Boston Common. Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park also has a casting of a second version on the lawn area of Aspet.

Collection of sketches and early busts for Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial on display in the New Gallery at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park

Depending on your interest in art, allow 15 to 30 minutes for a visit to the New Gallery and Atrium.

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