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Hiawatha

1871–72, carved 1874
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 700
Saint-Gaudens’s three years of study in Paris came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. He left for Rome in late 1870 and soon began Hiawatha, his first full-length statue, inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem "The Song of Hiawatha" (1855). Seated on a rock in a contemplative pose, with his quiver of arrows and bow nearby, the fictional Ojibwe chief is "pondering, musing in the forest /On the welfare of his people," as an excerpt from Longfellow’s verse inscribed on the base declares. Saint-Gaudens was one of many artists who drew thematic inspiration from the poet's "Hiawatha," reinforcing the stereotype of the "vanishing" Native American.


Read a Native Perspective on this work.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Hiawatha
  • Artist: Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, Dublin 1848–1907 Cornish, New Hampshire)
  • Date: 1871–72, carved 1874
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Marble
  • Dimensions: Figure: 60 x 34 1/2 x 37 1/4 in. (152.4 x 87.6 x 94.6 cm)
    Base (Granite base): 23 in.
    Other (Plinth with inscription): 5 3/4 in. (14.6 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of Diane, Daniel, and Mathew Wolf, in memory of Catherine Hoover Voorsanger, 2001
  • Object Number: 2001.641
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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