A sculpture by Daniel Chester French is shown in front of the Museum's north entrance.
“Art in the Architecture” is a 1 Fine Arts Blog series dedicated to the ornamental details on the Saint Louis Art Museum’s Main Building, which was designed by Cass Gilbert for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. In 1904, the building was flanked by sprawling, temporary wings that together formed the Palace of Fine Arts, which presented fairgoers with approximately 11,000 works of art from 26 countries. It is the sole surviving building from the World’s Fair.
Two towering female figures flank the entrance to the Museum’s Main Building. The pair of sculptures was originally created to be temporary features to decorate the Louisiana Purchase Exposition’s Palace of Fine Arts, which is now home to the Saint Louis Art Museum. After the 1904 fair ended, architect Cass Gilbert arranged for the statues to be remade permanently out of stone.
Daniel Chester French, American, 1850–1931; Sculpture, 1914–15; Tennessee marble; 103 x 58 x 72 inches, base: 6 1/2 x 58 x 74 3/4 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Museum Purchase 159:1913
North facade of Museum Building with Sculpture by Daniel Chester French.
The seated figure to the east of the Main Building staircase was created by American artist Daniel Chester French. French designed the fair’s temporary sculpture out of plaster, and the stone version was completed in 1915. Carved from Tennessee marble, the work represents the art of sculpture. The figure holds a mallet in her right hand; in her left hand she holds chisels. Her left arm rests on top of a partially finished sculpture of a man, woman, and child.
French studied sculpture in the late 1860s and early 1870s under Abigail May Alcott and John Quincy Adams Ward, supplementing his apprenticeships with anatomy lectures and drawing lessons. He trained formally in Florence for two years before studying in Paris. There, he was exposed to the Beaux Arts style, which was heavily informed by classical Roman and Greek forms that would become prevalent in his later sculptures. In 1888, French returned to the United States and continued to gain fame as an artist. He was commissioned to design several sculptures across the East Coast, including the 19-foot-tall statue of Abraham Lincoln installed in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.
Annetta Johnson Saint-Gaudens, American, 1869–1943; designed by Louis Saint-Gaudens, American, 1854–1913; Painting, 1914–15; Tennessee marble; 103 x 56 1/2 x 70 1/4 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Museum Purchase 160:1913
North facade of Museum Building with Painting by Louis and Annetta Saint-Gaudens.
American sculptor Annetta Johnson Saint-Gaudens completed the seated figure on the west side of SLAM’s Main Building entrance in 1915. Saint-Gaudens trained under the prominent sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who was an expert in Beaux Arts-style sculpting. She married his younger brother and fellow sculptor, Louis Saint-Gaudens, alongside whom she worked for many years.
Her sculpture is an allegory for painting. The temporary, plaster sculpture was originally designed for the fair by Saint-Gaudens’ husband, Louis, who died in 1913. The sculpture featured a palette and paint brush; the paintbrush has been lost to time, along with several fingers.
Saint-Gaudens was a socialist and feminist as well as a regarded sculptor. She spent much of her life working in the Cornish Art Colony community, and following the death of her husband, she became an art educator for California public schools.