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Irish born ugustus Saint-Gaudens is arguaably the greatest of all American sculptures. He was certainly oneof the most prominent New York artists of the Gilded Age.
Augustus was born in Dublin, Ireland. His father was Bernard Saint-Gaudens, a French shoemaker. His mother was Mary McGuinness. We do not have details on the family's circumstances, but note that he was born during the Potato Famine.
The family immigrated to New York City while Augustus was still an infant. It was thus in America that Augustus grew up. He completed his basic schooling when he was 13 years old.
At the time he finished school, Augustus expresed a desire to pursue art as a vocation. The family did not have the funds to afford formal studies, but Augustus was apprenticed to a cameo cutter. Cameos were particularly popular in the Victorian era. Augustus learned to cut cameos on a lathe and after wirking during the day took evening classes on art at the Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design.
Saint-Gaudens while in Rome met an American art student, Augusta Homer, in Rome and married her after returming to America (1877). They had one son named Homer. As a favor, the great portrait painter John Singer Sargent did a portrait of the boy in 1900. The elder Saint-Gaudens did a bronze sculpture of Sargent's sister, so Sargent repaid this favor by painting a portrait of Saint-Gaudens's son Homer, shown in the painting with his mother.
While St. Gaudens studied art, his early experiences with cameos appears to have influenced him to focus on sculpture. St. Gaudens after returning to America received his first important commission; a monument to Civil War Admiral David Glasgow Farragut (1876). It was a great success and his reputation was established. St. Gaudens did many notable works. He did the famed double eagle gold coin. He also did the Robert Gould Shaw memorial to Black Civil War soldiers in Boston.
The Robert Gould Shaw memorial to Black Civil War soldiers is one of Saint Gaudens major works. Robert Gould Shaw (1837-63) was born into a staunch Boston abolitionist family. He was a captain in the 2nd Massachusetts. Because of his family background, Massachusetts Governor John Andrew made Shaw a colonel and ordered him to raise and command the first regiment of black troops organized by any Northern state. This was made possible after Liincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
There had been 11 "colored" regiments raised mostly from freed slaves in occupied areas of the Conderate States. (The Emancipation Proclamation did not free he slaves in the bordr states.) Shaw recruiting free blacks from Massachusetts and other New England states. His regiment was mustered into the Federl army as the 54th Massachusetts (May 13, 1863). At the time, many Whites questioned the fughting ability of Black soldiers. The Regiment was deployed to South Carolina to participate in operatons to take Charleston. The South Carolina port was widely seen as the craddle of the Confederacy because the War began hre with the firing on Fort Sumter. Confederate forts on the island arounf Charleston prevented the Federal Navy from approaching Charleston itself. The Regiment paticipated in engagemebts on James Island, at Legaresville (July 13) and Secessionville (July 16). Next the Regiment was deployed to Morris Island. Shaw led the 54thin a combined assault with two brigades of white soldiers on a Confederate fort--Battery Wagner (July 18). The assault failed. Col. Shaw and about a quarter of his men were killed in one of the most famed charges of the Civil War. While Shaw failed to take Battery Wagner, in part because the white troops did not properly support him, the 54 Massachusetts firmly demonstrated the fighting ability of Black soldiers. The use of Black soldiers outraged the Coinfederates. The Condederates buried Shaw in a common grave with his men. his was meant as an insult. Shaw's parents, when informed of this, considered it an honor and what their son would have wanted. Black solfdiers went on to play a major role in the fighting during 1864 and '65. The Federal use of Black soldiers was successsful that the Conderates were considering forming their own Black regiments.
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