The Puritan, 1899 (bronze)

In 1881 Saint-Gaudens was commissioned by Chester W. Chapin, a railroad tycoon and congressman, to sculpt a large-scale bronze likeness of an ancestor, Deacon Samuel Chapin (1595–1675), one of the three founding fathers of Springfield, Massachusetts. The sculptor wrote in his "Reminiscences" that: "The statue . . . was to represent Deacon Samuel Chapin, but I developed it into an embodiment . . . of the 'Puritan.'" On Thanksgiving Day 1887, "The Puritan" was unveiled on Stearns Square in Springfield, at one end of a site designed by Stanford White. The monument was relocated to Merrick Park in 1899. In "The Puritan," Saint-Gaudens successfully translated an abstract idea into three-dimensional form. The figure is not an individual portrait, but a representation of Puritan dogma. Eyes focused downward, he strides with a knotty walking stick across the pine-strewn New England wilderness, symbolized by a few scattered branches on the base. About 1894, Saint-Gaudens decided to make reductions after the full-size "Puritan," because of the statue's popularity and for the income he would derive. These reduced size statues of which more than 25 were made, were cast in Paris and vary in coloration and minor alterations to the figure.