Augustus Saint-Gaudens, a master of American Sculpture The Augustus Saint-Gaudens exhibition (12th February - 30th May 1999) presents, for the first time in France, the work of a famous American sculptor whose paternal family originated from the Toulouse region. Augustus Saint-Gaudens is one of the main representatives of the American Renaissance, dating from the end of the 19th century, which saw the flourishing of large-scale decorative and architectural projects in the United States. This exhibition has been organised by the Augustins museum and the Réunion des musées nationaux with the collaboration of the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire. It was presented last July through October at the national museum of Franco-American Co-operation at the château de Blérancourt. The work of Saint-Gaudens - who was nicknamed the "American Michelangelo" - reveals a profound influence stemming from French art, especially in his monumental sculpture. He was also the author of numerous bronze bas-reliefs all of which are portraits from life representing the great social figures of his time, heroes of a golden age during which Augustus Saint-Gaudens was both a player and a spectator. His diverse works oscillate between realism and idealism, whereas his bas-reliefs testify to a search for instant, poetic and often chromatic truth, which corresponds to the contemporary innovations in painting. Saint-Gaudens was a great humanist with an academic background but who was, at the same time, a modern.