Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site

Our first stop on the day after we visited King Arthur Flour was the National Park Service's sole location in New Hampshire.  You may recall that one of the pieces of art we saw in Boston was the Massachusetts 54th Regiment/Robert Gould Shaw memorial across the street from the statehouse (see post on our Boston Common visit here).  Well our stop in New Hampshire was at the home of the sculptor who created that memorial, Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

Discover the home, studios and gardens of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of America’s greatest sculptors. See over 100 of his artworks in the galleries and on the grounds, from heroic public monuments to expressive portrait reliefs, and the gold coins which changed the look of American coinage.
--from Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site webpage

Once you turn off the main road you get to drive up this tree-lined road towards the parking lot.

The parking lot wasn't large, but was mostly empty when we arrived.

We left one end of the parking lot and headed towards the visitor center.  I'm not sure if the booth is actually used--maybe only on busy days?

This map gave us a helpful overview of the property.

The walk along the trail out of the parking lot was beautiful.

I even walked a bit slower than everyone else so that I could grab some pictures of the myriad of plants in the woods.

 We crossed the road and walked up a gravel drive to the visitor center building.

 The first piece of artwork we saw was a sculpture of Abraham Lincoln.

As we started touring the grounds we got a better view of Lincoln.

The figure known as the “Standing Lincoln” was the first of Saint-Gaudens’ statues of Lincoln. He received the commission for this monument in 1884 and began work in earnest the fol lowing year. The 12-foot-tall Lincoln is posed as though having just risen from the chair of state behind him. He is about to give a speech; his head slightly bowed, as though deep in thought, his left hand grasping the lapel of his jacket.

--from National Park Service booklet

The Farragut monument was the artist's first public monument.  The subject is the famed Civil War Admiral.  The base of the monument is the original one moved from New York City after a replacement was commissioned.  The statue is a cast of the original erected in 1881.

The atrium had a nice reflecting pool.

The bust of Lincoln is from the standing statue.

 The Puritan.

This plaster bas relief is of Robert Louis Stevenson.

This decorative panel depicting the Roman goddess Ceres was made for the New York home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II.

 This plaster bust of William Tecumseh Sherman dates from 1888.

Outside we saw the stable which houses several historic vehicles.

 Inside was an exhibit dedicated to the stable hand's room.

Once outside we saw a garden and walked over to look around.

In the garden we spotted a number of beautiful blooms.

We then walked down this tree-lined path.

After turning a corner we came across the Shaw Memorial.  It is a stirring monument to a definitive moment in history.  This memorial "remains one of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens' most stirring and celebrated masterpieces and is considered by some to be America's greatest public monument. It also took him the longest sculpture to complete; 14 years until the unveiling in Boston in 1897."
--from Saint-Gaudens NHS website

Located in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C., the Adams Memorial (1891) was commissioned by the historian, Henry Adams (1838-1918), for the grave of his wife, Marian "Clover" Hooper Adams (1843-1885).
--from NPS signage

We walked by the house before we headed back to our car.

While I don't always enjoy art I did enjoy this visit, partly because of the connection we were able to make to our earlier visit to Boston.  You can view all of the above pictures and a few more in this album.

~Matt