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For more on the the Saint Gaudens National Historical Park, see the first post in this series. This post is available as a video at https://youtu.be/5OMKXdZynQA.

This week we look at more of the low-relief portraits in the New Studio. On the exterior of the New Studio and the larger works inside it, see the second post in this series.

William Gedney Bunce, 1877

As a painter Bunce (1840-1916), a native of Hartford, was known for composing his works with a palette knife rather than a paintbrush. Examples of his Venetian scenes are here.

Francis D. Millet, ca. 1880

Millet (1848-1912), a classically trained painter, was director of decorations for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. A friend of Mark Twain, Saint Gaudens, and John Singer Sargent, he died on the Titanic. See some of his works here.

The Howells, 1898

William Dean Howells (1837-1920), novelist, critic, and playwright, was editor of The Atlantic Monthly for 10 years. His daughter Mildred Howells (1872-1966) was a painter and poet. Saint Gaudens also did a version with Mildred only, in a circular format.

Andrew F. Bunner, 1878

Bunner (1841-1897) was a painter of landscapes and seascapes. An example of his work is here.

William Merritt Chase, 1888

Chase (1849-1916), a native of Indiana, was a landscape painter and founder of the Chase School, which became the Parsons School of Design. The American Academy of Arts and Letters has a bronze version of this relief. Kenyon Cox, a member of the Cornish Colony, painted Saint Gaudens at work on this relief. A painter doing a portrait of a sculptor doing a portrait of a painter: cool.

Children of Prescott Hall Butler, 1880-1881; this cast 2011

Stanford White, the architect who often worked with Saint Gaudens, commissioned Saint Gaudens to create this portrait of Charles Stewart Butler (1876-1954) and Lawrence Smith Butler (1875-1954) as a surprise gift for their father, Prescott Hall Butler, a New York lawyer. The two boys are dressed in Scottish Highland attire, with kilts and sporrans. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a marble version commissioned from Saint Gaudens in 1905.

Study of a child: Louis Paul Clark, 1892

And finally, on a personal note: Louis (b. 1889) was the son of Augustus Saint Gaudens and Davida Clark (1861-1910), Saint Gaudens’s favorite model.

Davida Clark / model for Diana

Davida was Saint Gaudens’s favorite models. This is an early study for the head of Diana. For the finished Diana, see last week’s post.

Next week: the working area of the New Studio.

More

• Admission to the Saint Gaudens National Historical Park is free if you have a senior pass from the National Parks Service, which can be purchased for a one-time fee.
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