Robert Gould Shaw Memorial
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus; White, Stanford
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Alternative Title
Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment Memorial
Date
1884-1897Description
Relief sculpture; Colonel Shaw and his regiment were remembered almost thirty-five years later in a monument of enormous emotional power and artistry, unveiled on the Boston Common on Memorial Day, 1897. Its sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, had taken more than a dozen years to create it. His work started off with the idea of a single equestrian statue of the young Colonel Shaw, following a long tradition in military statuary. Soon, however, it became a procession of black soldiers and their white leader, moving together toward the goal of emancipation. Source: National Gallery of Art [website]; http://www.nga.gov/ (accessed 7/9/2010)
Type of Work
monument; bas-relief (sculpture)Subject
allegory, military or war, portrait, rulers and leaders, Slavery, United States History Civil War, 1861-1865, memorial, bas-relief, African-Americans, Nineteenth century
Rights
Rights Statement
Licensed for educational and research use by the MIT community only