Museum Collections
Luce Center
The Puritan
Object Number:
1946.253
Date:
1899
Medium:
Dark brown/ black patinated bronze
Dimensions:
overall: 30 1/2 x 18 x 13 in.
Marks:
Dated on base at rear: COPY BY / AUGUSTUS SAINT GAUDENS / MDCCCXCIX
Description:
Figure
Gallery Label:
This sculpture is a scale reduction of the over life size bronze statue of deacon Samuel Chapin created for Sterns Square in Springfield, MA. Although Chapin's name appears on the base of the original figure, it is omitted on the reduction in favor of the generic title, "The Puritan." Saint-Gaudens's figure carries a large bible and strides forward forcefully, embodying the 19th century view of the Puritans as pioneers motivated by religious and political ideals.
Bibliography:
"Augustus Saint Gaudens," The Century Magazine, November 1887, pp. 28-37.
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus, The Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, ed. And amplified by Homer Saint-Gaudens, New York, NY: The Century Co., 1913, pp. 353-4.
"Saint-Gaudens and his Work", The Art World, Vol. I, No. 5, February 1917. pp. 303-5.
"Recent Accessions," The New-York Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. 31, No. 2, April 1947, p. 123.
"Knickerbocker Birthday," The New-York Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. 39, No. 2-3, April-July 1955, p. 272.
Saint-Gaudens, Homer, Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Adapted from a lecture given by his son, Homer Saint-Gaudens, Cornish, New Hampshire, 1957, p. 35.
Gardner, Albert TenEyck, American Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1965, p. 53.
Craven, Wayne, Sculpture in America, New York, NY: Crowell, 1968, pp. 384-5.
Marcus, Lois Goldreich, Studies in Nineteenth-Century American Sculpture: Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907), A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York, 1979, Vol. I, pp. 145-173, Vol. II, pp. 48-58.
Dryfhout, John H., The Work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Hanover, NH: University Press of New Englalnd, 1982, pp. 116, 162-66, 270.
Greenthal, Kathryn, Augustus Saint-Gaudens Master Sculptor, New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985, 127-30.
Shapiro, Michael Edward, Bronze Casting and American Sculpture 1850-1900, Newark, NJ: University of Delaware Press, 1985, pp. 102-6
Greenthal, Kathryn, Kozol, Paula M., and Ramirez, Jan Seidler, American Figurative Sculpture in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA: Museum of Fine Arts, 1986, pp. 238-42.
Deutsch, David Tenenbaum, "Jewelry for Mourning, Love, and Fancy," The Magazine Antiques, April 1999, pp. 566-75.
Reynolds, Donald Martin, "Augustus Saint-Gaudens 1848-1897, A Master of American Sculpture," American Arts Quarterly, Spring 2000, pp. 8-15.
Tolles, Thayer, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, His Critics, and the New School of American Sculpture, 1875-1893, A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York, 2003, pp. 268-72.
Credit Line:
Gift of Mr. James Hazen Hyde
Due to ongoing research, information about this object is subject to change.