António Soares dos Reis and Augustus Saint-Gaudens: an artistic friendship

Abstract

António Soares dos Reis and Augustus Saint-Gaudens enjoyed a close friendship in Paris (1868-70) and Rome (1871-72), about which little is known. There are no extant letters between the two sculptors and few references to their relationship in published or archival sources. Some conclusions may be posited through their training, shared experiences, and mutual friends. This paper traces the time that the two artists spent together through the lens of Saint-Gaudens, an artist of French-Irish parentage who would become the leading American sculptor of his day. It examines concurrent work on Soares dos Reis’s O Desterrado (1872) and Saint-Gaudens’s Hiawatha (1871-72; carved 1874).