Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, born Ireland, 1848–1907)
Violet Sargent
INV-9351
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, born Ireland, 1848–1907)Modeled 1890, cast c. 1908
Realismsculptureamerican arts
Date
Modeled 1890, cast c. 1908
Medium
Bronze
Dimensions
127 × 87 cm (50 × 34 1/4 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Brooks McCormick
Portrayed here is Violet Sargent, the sister of the painter John Singer Sargent. Augustus Saint-Gaudens produced this bronze relief in exchange for a portrait of his wife and son by Sargent. Clothed in contemporary dress and playing a guitar, Violet projects charm, elegance, and sophistication—similar to a sitter in a Sargent portrait in oil. Musical instruments were often included in late 19th-century depictions of young upper-class women as a way of suggesting the leisure and refinement these women were expected to embody. The varying degrees of relief and the harmonious lines of this work attest to Saint-Gaudens’s technical prowess and his sensitivity to the medium of bronze.
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