The Children of Prescott Hall Butler
Saint-Gaudens modeled this portrait of Charles Stewart Butler (1876–1954) and Lawrence Smith Butler (1875–1954) as a surprise gift from the architect Stanford White to the boys’ father, Prescott Hall Butler, a New York lawyer. The brothers are dressed in Scottish Highland attire: jackets and pleated kilts, with sporrans hanging from their waists. The endless ribbon at the upper left is inscribed twice with a line from the first book of Virgil’s Aeneid: "DABIT DEVS HIS QVOQVE FINEM" (The god will bring an end to this, too). This carving was one of three portraits of children commissioned by the Metropolitan from Saint-Gaudens in 1905.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Children of Prescott Hall Butler
- Artist: Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, Dublin 1848–1907 Cornish, New Hampshire)
- Carver: Carved by Piccirilli Brothers Marble Carving Studio (active 1893–1946)
- Date: 1880–81; carved 1906–7
- Culture: American
- Medium: Marble
- Dimensions: 24 1/2 x 36 in., 161lb. (62.2 x 91.4 cm)
Framed: 35 3/4 x 46 x 3 1/4 in. (90.8 x 116.8 x 8.3 cm) - Credit Line: Gift of Jacob H. Schiff, 1905
- Object Number: 05.15.1
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing
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