Plaster Portrait Bust of William Maxwell Evarts

Object Details

Object Essay

In 1867, Augustus Saint-Gaudens left New York to study sculpture in Paris—a remarkable destination since American sculptors had previously chosen to go to Italy for their training. At the École des Beaux-Arts, he learned to model in the lively French manner, characterized by a richly textured surface with a flickering play of light and shadow. In 1870, with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, Saint-Gaudens left for Rome where he lived the impoverished life of an art student for the next two years.^{1_{Even Saint-Gaudens’s future wife, Augusta, who was then studying painting in Rome, referred to his obscurity when she wrote home on December 18, 1873: “Mr. St. Gaudens of New York, until recently unknown . . . as Mr. What’s his name, [is] a promising young sculptor,” Wilkinson, 67.}}

It was at this point that the family of William Maxwell Evarts (1818–1901), Secretary of State from 1877 to 1881 under President Rutherford B. Hayes, entered Saint-Gaudens’s life. At the time, the sculptor was ill, discouraged, and greatly in need of a commission that would give him professional reputation and income. Evarts, a successful lawyer with political ambitions, was in Geneva on a diplomatic mission and made a visit to Rome. His daughter, Hattie, persuaded her father to commission Saint-Gaudens to make copies of several ancient busts, and the success of these led to the commission for the portrait of Evarts himself. 

The sittings took place in New York while Saint-Gaudens was on a return visit, but the bust was completed in Rome after the sculptor returned there in 1874. The portrait of Evarts is the masterpiece of Saint-Gaudens’s early career.^{2_{Greenthal 1985, 72–74.}} In its vital naturalism, it captures a spirited yet noble demeanor, and its classical herm-type base provides a timeless quality, which the inclusion of contemporary attire would have destroyed. Saint-Gaudens wrote to Evarts that he appreciated being allowed to keep the sculpture on view in his studio in Rome where it was constantly and greatly admired by visitors.^{3_{Augustus Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College Library, Hanover, New Hampshire, Letter from Saint-Gaudens to William Evarts, dated Rome, April 22, 1874. In another letter, dated June 24, 1874, (also at the Dartmouth College Library), Saint-Gaudens—always the severest critic of his own work—confided to Evarts: “I am satisfied with it myself.” He exhibited either the marble or plaster version at the National Academy of Design, New York, in 1875 and at the Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia in 1876.}}

The bust of Evarts was translated into marble in Saint-Gaudens’s Roman studio.^{4_{The original marble bust of Evarts remained in the family until it was obtained by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.}} On June 24th, the sculptor wrote to Evarts saying that this final work should by then have arrived in New York. He added, “The piece mould of your bust I have made here and did not send it as it was too damp and would have been ruined during the voyage. I shall send it with the next things I send you, and with it you can have as many plaster reproductions of the marble portrait as you like.”^{5_{Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College Library.}} It is extraordinary for a sculptor to have turned his mold over to someone else, even the sitter; molds were normally retained in the hope that additional plaster copies would be commissioned, which would provide income for the sculptor. A bill settling accounts, dated March 13, 1875, indicates that Evarts paid Saint-Gaudens $200 for the marble bust and $20 for the piece mold.^6_Ibid. The Collection’s plaster still has clear casting lines.

Evarts’s home in Windsor, Vermont, was just across the Connecticut River from Cornish, New Hampshire, where Saint-Gaudens eventually built his own summer residence and studio. A descendant of William Evarts indicated that, for as long as he could remember, the bust had been in his cousin’s law office in Windsor.^{7_{Letter to Clement E. Conger, November 28, 1988, Curatorial Files, Diplomatic Reception Rooms.}} In any case, the plaster bust was probably made for some member or members of the Evarts family very near the time that the marble was executed. The inscription indicates it was made by Saint-Gaudens himself. The piece remained in the Evarts family until acquired by the Department of State.    

Wayne  Craven

Excerpted from Clement E. Conger, et al. Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1991.