Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Cox and Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907) met in Paris in the 1870s and exchanged portraits in 1887: an oil painting for a bronze relief. The original canvas was lost in Saint-Gaudens’s 1904 studio fire, so Cox created this replica in time for the Metropolitan Museum’s 1908 memorial exhibition of the sculptor’s work. Saint-Gaudens is shown in his New York studio, modeling in clay a portrait relief of the artist William Merritt Chase. A bronze likeness of the sculptor’s son, Homer, hangs on the wall (the Museum owns a marble replica; 05.15.2). Cox cleverly echoed his friend’s portrait reliefs by showing him in profile. (Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)