The Puritan

Details

Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907)
The Puritan
inscribed 'AVGVTVS·SAINT GAVDENS' and stamped twice '·COPYRIGHT·/·BY·AVGVSTVS·/SAINT·GAVDENS/*M*/·DCCCXC·/*IX*' (on the base)--inscribed '·THE·PVRITAN·' (along the base)
bronze with greenish-brown patina
30 ¼ in. (76.8 cm.) high
Modeled in 1886.

Provenance

(Probably) Elizabeth Broun Ernst, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
(Probably) The Winchester Thurston School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, gift from the above, circa 1950.
(Probably) Sotheby's, New York, 21 May 2003, lot 183, sold by the above.
(Probably) Acquired by the present owners from the above.

Literature

W. Craven, Sculpture in America, Cranbury, New Jersey, 1968, pp. 384-85, another example referenced.
B.G. Proske, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, 1968, pp. 9-11, another example illustrated.
T. Armstrong, et al., 200 Years of American Sculpture, New York, 1976, pp. 51, 81, pl. 18, another example illustrated.
J.H. Dryfhout, The Work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1982, pp. 162-66, other examples illustrated.
M. Evert, Discovering Pittsburgh’s Sculpture, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1983, pp. 293-94, another example illustrated.
K. Greenthal, Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Master Sculptor, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1985, p. 174.
K. Greenthal, et al., American Figurative Sculpture in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, 1986, pp. 238-42, no. 74, another example illustrated.
M.A. Goley, B. Wilkinson, Augustus Saint-Gaudens: American Sculptor, From the Collection of the Saint-Gaudens Historic Site, exhibition catalogue, Washington, D.C., 1992, pp. IV, VIII, no. 24.
T. Tolles, ed., American Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. I, New York, 1999, pp. 285-88, no. 123, another example illustrated.
H.J. Duffy, J.H. Dryfhout, Augustus Saint-Gaudens: American Sculptor of the Gilded Age, exhibition catalogue, Washington, D.C., 2003, p. 75, no. 39, another example illustrated.

Lot Essay

The present bronze is one of several reductions made after Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ 1886 monumental statue, The Puritan. The original work was commissioned for Stearns Square in Springfield, Massachusetts, by Chester W. Chapin to pay homage to his ancestor, Deacon Samuel Chapin, a founding member of the city. As there was no record on which to base Deacon Chapin’s appearance, his descendants worked closely with Saint-Gaudens to ensure accuracy in the figure’s dress, utilizing seventeenth-century woodblock prints for research. The stalwart figure, who confidently strides forward with walking stick in hand and a book held firmly under his left arm, was unveiled on Thanksgiving Day 1887. Representing more than just the singular man on which it was based, The Puritan stands for qualities of resilience, courage and moral fortitude--the all-important makings of an early American settler.

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