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Bust from the Adams Memorial

A work made of bronze.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of bronze.

Date:

Modeled 1892–93, cast 1912

Artist:

Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, born Ireland, 1848–1907)

About this artwork

This bust comes from the upper portion of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s 1886–91 full-figure tomb monument for Marian Hooper Adams, the wife of historian and philosopher Henry Adams, in Washington’s Rock Creek Cemetery. Because Marian’s death was a suicide and the couple was fascinated by Asian cultures, Henry asked Saint-Gaudens to avoid Christian symbolism and instead evoke the “contemplative compassion derived from Buddhist philosophy.” When Chicago architect Daniel Burnham visited Saint-Gaudens in 1892, he saw a plaster cast of the figure’s head and was enthralled by its mysterious yet meditative quality. In 1893, perhaps in celebration of Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition, Saint-Gaudens gave the bust to Burnham, who later had four bronzes cast from it.

Status

On View, Gallery 179

Department

Arts of the Americas

Artist

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Title

Bust from the Adams Memorial

Place

United States (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Modeled 1892–1893

Medium

Bronze

Dimensions

51.4 × 30.5 × 26.7 (20 1/4 × 12 × 10 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Bequest of Brooks McCormick

Reference Number

2007.389

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/191184/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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