Garlic to art, primroses to death: The poetic legacy of Augustus Saint-Gaudens

March 1, 1848

Dearest reader,

On this day, we celebrate the birth of Augustus Saint Gaudens (“gaw-dens”), a master sculptor of the American Beaux-Arts generation who forever changed the landscape of public art with his breathtaking Civil War monuments and striking portraiture.

Born in Dublin of Irish-French heritage and raised in New York City, Saint Gaudens synthesized European training with an unyielding American spirit, crafting works full of naturalistic vitality and profound emotion. Among his most famous creations stands Abraham Lincoln: The Man, a monument that captures the solemn dignity and humane grandeur of the great president.

In his biography Reminiscences, Saint Gaudens revealed a witticism most fitting for any creator's soul:

“What garlic is to salad, insanity is to art.”

Might this passionate hint at the frenzied essence behind inspired genius help us understand the fire and intensity beneath Saint Gaudens’ elegant marble and bronze?

Such madness, after all, breathes life into stone and cool metal alike.

At The Frick Museum, a medallion carved by Augustus bears an inscription from the beloved Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem Underwoods (1887):

Youth now flees on feathered foot
Faint and fainter sounds the flute…

Where hath fleeting beauty led?
To the doorway of the dead

Life is over, life was gay
We have come the primrose way.

This delicate verse, engraved by a sculptor who treasured Stevenson’s friendship, eloquently reflects on the ephemeral nature of youthful beauty and life’s fleeting joys.

Dear reader, as you stroll under stately monuments or pause before these medallions, ask yourself: How does the dance between beauty, madness, and art shape our memory of history?

What spirit of obsession, what touch of crazed love, is required to mold the enduring faces of a nation?

Could the wild heart behind Saint Gaudens’ craft inspire your own creative passions, whether in garden or studio?