Saint-Gaudens was also a famous portraitist (he accomplished no less than two hundred portraits over about thirty years). He was an influential man, closely linked to the intellectual and financial elite and was often commissioned for funerary effigies or commemorative portraits. According to a painter friend of his called John La Farge, Saint-Gaudens wished, for the aforementioned works, "to paint portraits in relief ". He excelled in this technique and became an undisputed master of it.
His training as a cameo cutter also lead him to exert his talents in the field of numismatics. As a friend of President Roosevelt, he received carte blanche and he was able to design 10 and 20-dollar gold coins and a cent, which are today very sought after for their rarity and their beauty.
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