Augustus Saint-Gaudens: The Franco-Prussian War

"Ceres" by Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Carved from mahogany and holly wood with
ivory, mother-of-pearl, marble and bronze inlay

The gathering clouds of the Franco-Prussian struggle closed over Augustus Saint-Gaudens and his friends in Paris, one of whom described the beginning of the war in 1871:

'Gus and I were at the opera at the time that war was declared. Near the end of the performance, the principal actor came before the audience with a flag in his hand to call on them to sing the National Hymn. Then everyone went crazy and we no less than the others, so crazy that soon we found ourselves, with Bastien-Lepage and one of his friends, on the Boulevard des Italiens, where we hammered with fists and canes a number of idiots who were crying 'To Berlin!'

The question of whether or not to follow the example of almost all his friends and enlist, gave Saint-Gaudens infinite distress: and his ultimate leaving of Paris for quieter parts was only at the cost of much pride, sacrificed to the wishes of his mother, [who expressed her deep concern for him in an eight-page letter], and for whom he held the greatest affection. 

Saint-Gaudens shared what happened next in a letter dated September 21, 1870: 

"Fortunately I had been given a stone-cameo portrait to do for which I was to be paid one hundred dollars, an enormous sum to me at that time. The lady who ordered it, a widow from Canada, departed suddenly for America when the war broke out, and I sent the cameo to her by her father. Knowing therefore that I was to have this money, I left Paris on the fourth of September for Limoges, where my brother, Andrew worked in the employ of one of the New York Porcelain firms. 

After remaining in Limoges for three or four months I borrowed one hundred francs from my brother and started for Rome, as I knew that there I would find an Italian friend and, very probably, work. I arrived there at night and called immediately on my friend. I slept in his room, and the following morning I awoke to the blessed charm of Rome."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens" by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and his son, Homer Saint-Gaudens.)