Augustus Saint-Gaudens: La Petite École

"Augustus Saint-Gaudens" by Kenyon Cox

"My time at the little 'École de Médicine,' as they called the school, was enlivened by many amusing incidents, the result of the radical difference in the characters of the two professors who taught, one on Wednesdays and the other on Saturdays. 

Georges Jacquot, a short, loud-spoken, good-natured professor - and sculptor - came on Wednesday. He was entirely democratic, saying the most amusing things to the pupils. Although merry and good-hearted, he was a terror, from the fact that he indicated our errors with a very thick charcoal; so to those of us who had learned to work rather delicately and firmly his marks were only bearable because of the jollity with which he made them. While he taught, the boys raised as much noise as the uniformed and ill-natured 'gardien' at the doorway would permit.

On Saturdays Alexandre Laemlein criticized, a man of a totally different type. When he appeared, the class remained silent. He was austere, taking the greatest care to apply his suggestions with light touches, always certain and correct. Jacquot talked with a strange kind of mixed-up lisp as if he had a marble in his mouth, whereas Laemlein spoke with a deliberate nasal tone. Jacquot maintained that you must draw freely and with no fear of the paper, while Laemlein's advice was to the effect that you should draw lightly, carefully, and firmly, and not with sloppiness as do those who pretend to work with vigor. The result of this weekly divergence of views upon the boys can be imagined. In these surroundings, then, I prospered until at last I was awarded the first prize, and, subsequently, with a lot of other successful youths, received, with the medal, a crown of laurel. 

At this time also, at the end of these nine months of the Petite École, I felt much impressed by the receipt of a large envelope with the United States seal on it, notifying me of my admission to the Beaux Arts. This was a great joy. My first step was to obtain the authorization from the Master whose atelier I wished to enter, and selected sculptor François Jouffroy because at that time Jouffroy's atelier was the triumphant one of the Beaux Arts, his class capturing, as a rule, most of the prizes."

To be continued

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