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The Puritan

1883–86, cast 1899 or after
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 774
This statuette is a reduction after Saint-Gaudens’s monument to Deacon Samuel Chapin (1598-1675), which was unveiled in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1887. As there was no record of Chapin’s appearance, Saint-Gaudens modeled an idealized settler who conveys the fortitude and upright morals associated with the White, Protestant founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Eyes focused downward, the stern figure strides with a walking stick though the New England wilderness, symbolized by pine branches scattered on the base. About 1894, Saint-Gaudens resolved to make reductions after the full-size "Puritan," because of the statue's popularity and for the income he would derive. By mid-1898 bronze reductions were being cast in Paris. Located reductions, which number more than forty, reveal minor alterations to the figure. Examples vary in the angles of the hat and the walking stick and particularly in the coloration, which ranges from gold to brown to the green of the Metropolitan's cast.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Puritan
  • Artist: Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, Dublin 1848–1907 Cornish, New Hampshire)
  • Date: 1883–86, cast 1899 or after
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Bronze
  • Dimensions: 30 1/2 x 18 1/2 x 13 in. (77.5 x 47 x 33 cm)
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Jacob Ruppert, 1939
  • Object Number: 39.65.53
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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