The Children of Prescott Hall Butler
1880–81; carved 1906–7
Medium
Marble
Dimensions
24 1/2 x 36 in., 161lb. (62.2 x 91.4 cm) Framed: 35 3/4 x 46 x 3 1/4 in. (90.8 x 116.8 x 8.3 cm)
Classification
Sculpture
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Jacob H. Schiff, 1905
Accession Number
05.15.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
Nestled in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, *The Children of Prescott Hall Butler* (1880–81; carved 1906–7) is a captivating marble relief by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of America's foremost sculptors of the Gilded Age. This intimate portrait depicts the young sons of Prescott Hall Butler, a prominent New York figure, capturing their playful innocence and brotherly bond with remarkable tenderness. Saint-Gaudens, celebrated for his realistic monuments like the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, modeled the work in the early 1880s before it was meticulously carved in marble two dec...
About the Artist
Augustus Saint-Gaudens · 1848–1907
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907) was an Irish-born American sculptor widely regarded as the greatest American sculptor of the nineteenth century. Born in Dublin to a French father and Irish mother, he was brought to New York City as an infant. He trained as a cameo cutter, studied at the Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design, and then traveled to Paris, where he studied at the École de...