National Gallery

Shaw Memorial

Commissioned from the celebrated American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens in the early 1880s and dedicated as a monument in 1897, the Shaw Memorial has been acclaimed as the greatest American sculpture of the nineteenth century. The relief masterfully depicts Colonel Shaw and the first African-American infantry unit from the North to fight for the Union during the Civil War.

This plaster version served as a model for the smaller bronze casting in Boston MA. The two also are slightly different.

Photo 242, Nov 2011