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Lot Essay
The present work is one of eight known reductions of the figure Victory from Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ monumental equestrian statue of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman, situated in Grand Army Plaza at Fifty-ninth Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City, and is one of only two known versions that remain in private collections.
Saint-Gaudens began the monument to Sherman in 1892, taking his work to Paris for a time, and finally finishing at his studio in Cornish, New Hampshire in 1903. In creating the allegorical figure of Victory, Saint-Gaudens was inspired by several historical models which he would have had access to see at the Louvre, including the Hellenistic sculpture Winged Victory of Samothrace, and Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People. The model for Victory was Harriette Eugenia Anderson, who posed for the artist in 1897. A perfectionist through and through, Saint-Gaudens revised and reworked Victory even as the monument was being cast. According to John H. Dryfhout, the sculptor wrote to his molder in Paris: “If the head of the Victory is not cast, I should like the laurel leaves made a little bit more pointed on the head.” (as quoted in The Work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1982, p. 254)
The Sherman Monument was unveiled to the public on May 30, 1903, to much fanfare and praise. For a piece published in The Nation, Kenyon Cox wrote of Victory: “Before the horse and rider, half walks, half flies, a splendid winged figure, one arm outstretched, the other brandishing the palm Victory leading them on. She has a certain fierce wildness of aspect, but her rapt gaze and half-open mouth indicate the seer of visions peace is ahead and an end of war.” (as quoted in T. Tolles, ed., American Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. I, New York, 1999, p. 318)
While the figure of Victory was popular in Saint-Gaudens’ lifetime, reductions of the work were not made until after the sculptor’s death, when his widow requested that Saint-Gaudens’ molder render a plaster cast in a reduced size. Other bronze reductions of Victory include a cast held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and those at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia; the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and the University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware. A plaster cast, as well as a bronze reduction of Victory, can be found at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire.
Charles Deering--the prominent American businessman, philanthropist and a previous owner of the present work--was a major supporter of American art at the turn of the twentieth century. Deering formed friendships with many notable artists including Saint-Gaudens, John Singer Sargent and the Swedish painter Anders Zorn.
Saint-Gaudens began the monument to Sherman in 1892, taking his work to Paris for a time, and finally finishing at his studio in Cornish, New Hampshire in 1903. In creating the allegorical figure of Victory, Saint-Gaudens was inspired by several historical models which he would have had access to see at the Louvre, including the Hellenistic sculpture Winged Victory of Samothrace, and Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People. The model for Victory was Harriette Eugenia Anderson, who posed for the artist in 1897. A perfectionist through and through, Saint-Gaudens revised and reworked Victory even as the monument was being cast. According to John H. Dryfhout, the sculptor wrote to his molder in Paris: “If the head of the Victory is not cast, I should like the laurel leaves made a little bit more pointed on the head.” (as quoted in The Work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1982, p. 254)
The Sherman Monument was unveiled to the public on May 30, 1903, to much fanfare and praise. For a piece published in The Nation, Kenyon Cox wrote of Victory: “Before the horse and rider, half walks, half flies, a splendid winged figure, one arm outstretched, the other brandishing the palm Victory leading them on. She has a certain fierce wildness of aspect, but her rapt gaze and half-open mouth indicate the seer of visions peace is ahead and an end of war.” (as quoted in T. Tolles, ed., American Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. I, New York, 1999, p. 318)
While the figure of Victory was popular in Saint-Gaudens’ lifetime, reductions of the work were not made until after the sculptor’s death, when his widow requested that Saint-Gaudens’ molder render a plaster cast in a reduced size. Other bronze reductions of Victory include a cast held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and those at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia; the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and the University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware. A plaster cast, as well as a bronze reduction of Victory, can be found at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire.
Charles Deering--the prominent American businessman, philanthropist and a previous owner of the present work--was a major supporter of American art at the turn of the twentieth century. Deering formed friendships with many notable artists including Saint-Gaudens, John Singer Sargent and the Swedish painter Anders Zorn.