Still fresh in the collective memory at the time, the American Civil War (1861-1865) was a source of numerous commissions for American sculptors. These were major works and represented, for American art, the advent of a new artistic era. By associating himself with the architects Henry H. Richardson, Stanford White and Charles McKim in a quest for a new approach to the construction of his monuments, Saint-Gaudens was placing himself at the forefront of the artistic scene.
The statue of Admiral Farragut, victor at the battle of New Orleans, was the first commission to be given to Augustus Saint-Gaudens by the New York city council in 1876. Saint-Gaudens and White worked together to achieve a perfect balance between the statue and its pedestal, with Saint-Gaudens designing the statue and the bas relief and White designing the pedestal and reworking the whole ensemble with a series of converging channels around the monument, inciting visitors to approach the work and to seat themselves on it. The bronze statue of the admiral, marked by a very great realism, contrasts with the pedestal, which is sculpted with two allegorical female figures, Courage and Loyalty. The inscription on the monument is an element that was typical of the decorative vocabulary of the artist..
In 1884, he received a commission for the Memorial to Colonel Shaw. Inaugurated in 1897 on the Common in Boston, the Memorial pays homage to the colonel R. G. Shaw and to his regiment, uniquely composed of black volunteers who fell before Fort Wagner in 1863. The statue of the colonel, sculpted in very high relief, frames the soldiers who advance while a winged Victory dominates the work. Saint-Gaudens was meticulous in his attention to detail, individualising each soldier.
The Monument to General Sherman commissioned by the New York Chamber of Commerce in 1892 was the last great work by Saint-Gaudens. Erected on a pedestal designed by the McKim, Mead and White agency, the equestrian sculpture received the Grand Prix at the 1900 Universal Exposition. The highly realistic rendition of Sherman is preceded by a winged Victory sculpted in the round that constitutes the driving force of the group.
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