Portrait of Augustus Saint-Gaudens

The sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907), is widely credited for the revival of the Italian Renaissance bas relief in America during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Such an important contribution to American art was given fitting tribute in 1904 when George Thomas Brewster captured the likeness of the aging Saint-Gaudens in low relief, much as Saint-Gaudens himself had worked. Born in Kingston, Massachusetts, Brewster studied in Boston and, later, at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He served as an instructor at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, and, after 1900, at the Cooper Union in New York City. Another measure of distinction for this object derives from its provenance as well as the original gilded-oak frame that so perfectly complements it. Shortly after its casting, the relief was acquired by Saint-Gaudens's sometime collaborator and close friend, Stanford White (1853-1906). White, a renowned architect with the firm, McKim, Mead & White, also designed frames for the works of many of his artist friends-Saint-Gaudens among them. The present frame was most certainly designed by White during his ownership of the relief (1904-1906), with the ensemble passing by descent through the family until 1970.