Head of Lincoln

Details

AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS (1848-1907)
Head of Lincoln
inscribed 'AVGVSTVS SAINT. GAVDENS/©' (along the left shoulder)—inscribed 'ROMAN BRONZE WORKS N-Y-' (along the back)
bronze with blackish-brown patina
16 1/2 in. (41.9 cm.) high on a 50 in. (127 cm.) high stone base
Modeled in 1887; cast circa 1923.

Provenance

Mr. and Mrs. Harry H. Blum.
Private collection, Illinois.
By descent to the present owner.

Literature

American Magazine of Art, vol. 20, April 1929, p. 223.
J.H. Dryfhout, The Work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1982, pp. 161-62, no. 124-6, another example illustrated.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens: American Sculptor, from the Collection of the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Washington, D.C., 1992, n.p., no. 20, another example illustrated.
T. Tolles, Augustus Saint-Gaudens in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2009, p. 24, fig. 25, another example illustrated.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Tylee Abbott Senior Vice President, Head of American Art

tabbott@christies.com +1 212 707 5925

Lot Essay

The present bronze was modeled in 1887, the same year that the artist unveiled his 9-foot sculpture of Abraham Lincoln for installation in Chicago's Lincoln Park. The Roman Bronze Works foundry likely cast the present bust-length model of the President in 1923.

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