Existing comment:
The Puritan:
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, about 1899:
Augustus Saint-Gaudens enlisted Chester Chapin, a sixth-generation descendant of Deacon Samuel Chapin of Springfield, Massachusetts, to pose for The Puritan. A billowing cape emphasizes the man's powerful stride and an enormous Bible evokes the austere faith that governed the Puritan colonies. After the Civil War, such images reinforced the idea that Anglo Saxon, Protestant convictions had guided the nation through its gravest crisis. Longfellow's New England, "old and yet ever new, and simple and beautiful always" reassured Americans dealing with industrialization and the flood of immigrants during the expansive years of the Golden Age. The Puritan was unveiled in Springfield on Thanksgiving Day, 1887, and Saint-Gaudens produced a number of smaller statues to meet the demand for replicas. |