Cornelius Vanderbilt I

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

1882 · Bronze · The American Wing

Saint-Gaudens’s work for Cornelius Vanderbilt II’s grand residence on Fifth Avenue at Fifty-Seventh Street included three low-relief portraits of family members. The posthumous likeness of patriarch Cornelius Vanderbilt I, a steamship and railroad entrepreneur, presents the Commodore, as he was known, posed in profile against a dense background of oak leaves and acorns. This motif, symbolizing strength and regeneration, was adapted from the family coat of arms, visible at the lower right. Saint-Gaudens’s bas-relief style underwent a noticeable shift in the early 1880s to incorporate such aestheticizing elements, rendering this portrait in harmony with the sumptuous tapestries and embossed leathers that decorated the house’s interior.

Artist

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Date

1882

Medium

Bronze

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Purchase, Brooke Russell Astor Bequest and David Schwartz Foundation Inc. Gift, 2016