Art Institute of Chicago

Jules Bastien-Lepage

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

Date

Modeled 1880, cast 1881

Medium

Copper with bronze patina

Culture

Paris

Department

Arts of the Americas

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Augustus Saint-Gaudens modeled a series of low-relief portraits of his artist friends in Paris, including this depiction of painter Jules Bastien-Lepage. The sculptor playfully featured a palette and brushes yet concealed most of the sitter’s hands—which are so important to an artist’s act of making. This shallow relief sculpture was made by the newly developed process of electrotyping. Electrically charged metals and metal alloys (here copper and bronze) adhered to a mold of the original clay sculpture at the particle level, creating a thin—yet faithful—copy. Saint-Gaudens is the earliest known American artist to invest in the technique, ordering electrotypes of two of his works from the Magee Furnace Company.

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