1. Augustus Saint-Gaudens designed the $20 Saint Gaudens Double Eagle gold piece for the US Mint, considered one of the most beautiful American coins ever issued, and the $10 "Indian Head" gold eagle; both of these were minted from 1907 until 1933.
10 Facts About Augustus Saint-Gaudens
1. 2.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens's apprenticeship was completed by the age of 19 and he traveled to Paris in 1867, where he studied in the atelier of Francois Jouffroy at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
3.
In 1874, Edwards Pierrepont, a prominent New York reformer, hired Augustus Saint-Gaudens to create a marble bust of himself.
4.
In 1876, Augustus Saint-Gaudens received his first major commission: a monument to Civil War Admiral David Farragut, in New York's Madison Square; his friend Stanford White designed an architectural setting for it, and when it was unveiled in 1881, its naturalism, its lack of bombast and its siting combined to make it a tremendous success, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens' reputation was established.
5.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens created the statue for the monument of Charles Stewart Parnell, which was installed at the north end of Dublin's O'Connell Street, backing on to Parnell Square in 1911.
6.
In 1887, when Robert Louis Stevenson made his second trip to the United States, Augustus Saint-Gaudens had the opportunity to make the preliminary sketches for a five-year project of a medallion depicting Stevenson, in very poor health at the time, propped in bed writing.
7.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens was an artistic advisor to the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, an avid supporter of the American Academy in Rome, and part of the McMillan Commission, which brought into being L'Enfant's long-ignored master plan for the nation's capital.
8.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1896.
9.
In 1920, Augustus Saint-Gaudens was posthumously elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.
10.
The renowned sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens was among those chosen for the 'Artists' category of this series and appears on this stamp, which was first issued in New York City on September 16,1940.