Artwork Details
- Title
- James A. Garfield Monument
- Artist
- Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848 – 1907)
- Year
- 1895
- Medium
- Bronze, on granite pedestal
- Dimensions
- Height 18'6" (base 1')
Artwork Description
Following the assassination of James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, Association for Public Art (then known as the Fairmount Park Art Association) established a fund to create a fitting memorial. The second monument to be commissioned by the Association, it proved a challenge. Garfield had not been a colorful president during his short term, nor outstanding as a soldier, congressman, or teacher.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens was selected for the commission in 1889. The artist came to America with his family from Dublin in 1848. He apprenticed to a stone cameo cutter at 13 and took evening classes in art and drawing. In 1867 he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and supported himself by continuing to cut cameos. He spent three years in Rome before returning to New York, where he established a studio.
Early sketches indicate that the Association’s committee wanted a standing figure on a pedestal, but Saint-Gaudens preferred to bring the scale of the work down to the viewer and to its “natural environment.” Working with his long-time associate, the architect Stanford White, the artist selected the site on East River (now Kelly) Drive. The unveiling was accompanied by parades, a flotilla, and naval and military ceremonies.
Content on this page was adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, 1992). Bach was the longtime Executive Director of the Association for Public Art, working with the organization from 1980 to 2022.
Artwork Credits
Commissioned by Association for Public Art (formerly Fairmount Park Art Association)
Owned by the City of Philadelphia
Artwork Media
Museum Without Walls
Voices:
FRANK BENDER (1941-2011) was an artist and the leading forensic sculptor in the country. His work has led to the identification of numerous murder victims and the apprehension of fugitive killers.
JOHN DRYFHOUT is the author of The Works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens and former curator and superintendent of the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire.
NANCY TOMES is professor and chair in the history department at Stony Brook University. She wrote about the death of President Garfield in The Gospel of Germs: Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life.
Producer: Ben Calhoun