The subtitle of an exhibition opening this weekend at the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park in Cornish says it all: “Augusta Homer Saint-Gaudens: Stepping Out of the Shadows.”
As the wife of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, now widely recognized as the father of American sculpture, Augusta, who was known as “Gussie,” had a big shadow to escape if she was to be noticed on her own. Her legacy is only now emerging.
“When you read the biographies of him, the mentions of her are always negative,” Henry Duffy, curator at the Saint-Gaudens park said in a phone interview. She was said to be “controlling,” concerned with business and the family’s purse strings.
“I started off with the supposition that there had to be more to her story than that,” Duffy said.
What was already known was that she played a key role in safeguarding her husband’s legacy. It was she who oversaw the establishment, in 1919, of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial, which preserved Saint-Gaudens’ home and artwork in Cornish. The park and the memorial, which continues its work in support of the national park, is celebrating this summer the 100th anniversary of that far-sighted decision.
“It’s really because of her that this park exists,” Duffy said. The memorial donated the Saint-Gaudens home in Cornish to the federal government in 1964.
To look into Augusta Saint-Gaudens’ life, Duffy and other park staff spent the winter reading her correspondence at Dartmouth College’s Rauner Special Collections Library.
What they found was “a small-town girl,” from Roxbury, Mass., then a farming community known for its orchards. Her family had been among the earliest European settlers and her father was a successful merchant.
Augusta Homer was sent to Europe to take in the culture and in Rome she met Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Their courtship was so swift that her family sent her to the Azores to get her away from her future husband and slow the process down. They were married in Roxbury in 1877 and moved to Paris, where Augustus was at work on the memorial to Admiral Farragut, a major commission. Their first and only child, Homer, was born in 1880. Augusta later suffered two miscarriages.
The great revelation in Augusta’s correspondence was in the letters she wrote after she became aware that her husband had embarked on an affair, a serious relationship that had yielded the artist another child. The Saint-Gaudenses continued to write to each other, “cordial letters, but very much full of pain,” Duffy said.
The affair resulted in a separation, during which Augustus buried himself in his work and Augusta traveled, more widely than most women did in the 1890s. She went to the Arctic Circle, to the Sahara, to the Middle East, in the company either of her sister or her son. She continued to write to her husband, and in her letters, “You could really just see her blossom into this really confident, independent woman,” Duffy said, adding that “she reacted to the mistress and the child by just really finding herself.”
The couple reconciled in 1900, when Augustus was diagnosed with cancer and they settled in Cornish, where they had spent their summers since 1885.
Despite her role in establishing the Saint-Gaudens Memorial, which led to the establishment of the national park, Augusta Saint-Gaudens has always been a marginal figure in her husband’s story. “This is the first time she’s got in the limelight,” Duffy said. “I think she was critical, and I think he knew that too,” he added.
Where Augustus was a dreamer, his wife understood that bills had to be paid and expenses managed. She wasn’t necessarily frugal, but she was more disciplined than her husband. She invested his considerable income, which allowed her to maintain the home in Cornish after his death, in 1907, and hand it on to the memorial. She also insisted that the memorial raise $100,000 before she would agree to donate the Cornish property and her husband’s work. The transfer took place upon her death, in 1926.
Saint-Gaudens made only one portrait of his wife, a bas relief, and there are no known portraits of the artist by his wife, who took painting lessons in Rome, but was largely self-taught.
The exhibition opening Saturday in the park’s Picture Gallery features 10 of Augusta’s paintings, along with articles of clothing, books and other items, photographs and documents. There will be an accompanying publication. Her paintings are largely factual, Duffy said. Landscapes, portraits and still-lifes in oil. The paintings aren’t the point, though.
“We’re giving her a voice in this exhibit,” Duffy said. “She never really had a chance to speak for herself before.”
“Augusta Homer Saint-Gaudens: Stepping Out of the Shadows” opens with a reception from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Saturday and remains on view through Sept. 2. The park has an entry fee of $10, but the reception takes place at closing time, so the fee doesn’t apply, Duffy said. He will give a talk at the start of the reception.
Tunbridge Public Library. “The Tunbrige Fair,” paintings by Bridgewater Corners artist Rae Newell. A reception is planned for 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday. Through Sept. 5.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center opens its summer exhibitions Thursday with a reception starting a 5 p.m. in the hospital’s Level 4 Mall lounge. The shows feature Elliot Burg, Jane Masters and Mark Washburn, photographs; Bruce Conklin, oil paintings; Sherry Saint-Germaine, botanical drawings; Sara Goodman, textiles; Hartford High School Art Students and the Cardigan Mountain Arts Association.
“How’s it gonna end?” drawing and paintings by Lyme artist Carl Mehrbach, is on view in the Betty Grant Gallery of Lyme’s Converse Free Library through Sept. 28.
Aidron Duckworth Art Museum, Meriden. “Bugs About/Diagonal Science,” sculpture by Langdon Graves; “If Ever,” mixed media work by Glenn Goldberg; and “Duckworth XXXIII — Abstraction and the Infinite Plane.” Through Sunday.
BigTown Gallery, Rochester, Vt. Recent work by landscape painter Rob Fish. Through Sunday.
Library Arts Center, Newport. “ROY G BIV: a community art exhibit,” and “Doll Houses: Obsession on a small scale,” dollhouses collected and created by Newport resident Mindy Thorpe. Through next Thursday.
Aidron Duckworth Art Museum, Meriden. “TACTICS/BEING CLOSE” a site-specific, interactive sculptural collaboration by Lucy Pullen and Tom Butter, and “TREE and VESSEL,” an exploration of traditional Bonsai by Norwich native Kyle Morrison. Through Sept. 8.
AVA Gallery and Art Center, Lebanon. Summer Juried Exhibition. Through Aug. 21.
BigTown Gallery, Rochester, Vt. “The Vermont Paintings,” by part-time Strafford artist Celia Reisman, and “The Geometric Exercises of Helen Matteson,” works by the late Thetford artist, through Aug. 11.
Center for the Arts, New London. The New London Inn hosts a group photography show; Blue Loon Bakery shows watercolors by Mary Belecz and Bar Harbor Bank and Trust on Main Street shows work by Kearsarge Middle and High School students. Through July 31.
Chelsea Public Library. “Sadie’s Fancy Work,” embroidery by Sadie Kennedy, of Chelsea, Through August.
Cider Hill Gardens and Gallery, Windsor. Outdoor sculpture by William Ballantyne and paintings in egg tempera and gold leaf by gallery co-owner Gary Milek.
Collective — the Art of Craft, Woodstock. Ceramics by Andrea Trzaskos, as well as works by jeweler T. Breeze Verdant, glass sculptor Alissa Faber. and fiber artist Jennifer Johnson. Through September.
Hall Art Foundation, in Reading, Vt. Shows include “Made in Vermont,” works by Vermont artists; exhibitions by Richard Artschwager and the super-realist artist Malcolm Morley. On the grounds: “English Sculptors in New England.” Admission is $10, except on the first Friday of the month, when it’s free.
Kilton Public Library, West Lebanon. Lebanon native Sam Wiebkin is the current artist-in-residence at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. An exhibition of her work is on view through September.
Ledyard Gallery, Howe Library, Hanover. “Art in Wood: the White Mountains, Mt. Monadnock, and Acadia,” marquetry by Peterborough, N.H., woodworker and artist Craig Altobello. Through July 31.
Long River Gallery, White River Junction. “Landscape Meditations: Pattern, Texture, and Line,” ceramics by Sheilagh Flynn, through Sept. 2, as well as paintings by Kathy Detzer.
Main Street Museum, White River Junction. “Jack Rowell, Cultural Documentarian: Portraits of Vermont People and Other Wildlife.”
Matt Brown Fine Art, Lyme. “Sculpture and Pottery by Amanda Ann Palmer.” Through Aug. 10.
Norwich Public Library. “Catching the Eye,” photographs by Rosamond Orford. Through August. A reception is planned for 4 to 6 p.m. on Aug. 2.
The Roth Center for Jewish Life at Dartmouth College, Hanover. “Antigua Revisited,” photographs by Mort Wise. Through Sept. 6.
Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park, Cornish. Works by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. In the Picture Gallery: “Fresco,” recent paintings by Ruby Sky Stiler. Admission to the park is $10 per person age 16 and above, but it’s free if you attend the reception.
Scavenger Gallery, White River Junction. “Skywriting,” recent work by Norwich artist Luciana Frigerio. Through Sept. 6.
Sculpture Fest, Woodstock. Outdoor sculpture at the Prosper Road home of Charlet and Peter Davenport. Stefania Urist and Roger Goldenberg are this year’s featured artists. This show is open to the public dusk to dawn. “Vermont Carvers & Sculptors Exhibition,” work by 15 Vermont sculptors, at the Woodstock History Center.
Steven Thomas Inc. Fine Arts & Antiques, White River Junction. Work by Upper Valley “vintage” artists, such as Alice Standish Buell, John Semple, Horace Brown, Neil Drevitson and Robert Caulfield.
Two Rivers Printmaking Studio, White River Junction. “Land on Paper,” landscape prints. A mid-show reception is planned for 5 to 7 p.m. on Aug. 2. Through Aug. 31.
White River Gallery, South Royalton. “Scattered Geometry,” ceramics by Jenny Swanson and Holly Walker. Through Sept. 6.
Alex Hanson can be reached at ahanson@vnews.com or 603-727-3207. Send visual art news to artnotes@vnews.com.
