Francis David Millet

Translated inscription: "Francis Davis Millet, 32 years of age, Paris, March 1879 Augustus Saint'Gaudens made this." This relief was probably made as a wedding present for Saint-Gaudens's close friend Francis David Millet, who married Elizabeth Greely Merrill on March 11, 1879. Saint-Gaudens and Mark Twain were witnesses as the marriage. This is one of five reliefs that Saint-Gaudens exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1879. Distinguished as both a painter and a war correspondent, Millet also was an organizational genius. He was a leading spirit of the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1892, assisted in organizing the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and was a founder and executive officer of the National Federation of Fine Arts. Along with Saint-Gaudens and Charles McKim, Millet proposed the formation of the American Academy in Rome, and served as its director until his death in April of 1912, during the sinking of the Titanic.