How the Sherman Monument Was Made: From Clay to Gilded Bronze

The gleaming monument to General William Tecumseh Sherman in New York City’s Grand Army Plaza — the general on horseback, led by a winged figure of Victory — is the work of the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. It was unveiled in 1903. Like all bronze sculpture, it was made by teams of people over months and years, in a long and technical process. The National Park Service at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park told the story in a set of light-hearted limericks; here are the steps they describe.

The Sherman Monument in New York City. NPS / M. Canfield.

1. Deciding what to say

A commission begins with its stakeholders choosing what the work should convey: which story and which figures viewers should see, and what feelings it should stir.

2. Modeling in clay

Saint-Gaudens — “Gus,” in the poem — first shaped the figures in clay, working to capture his sitters’ features. The detail shows it: Sherman is said to have posed some eighteen times, somewhat to his distress.

3. Enlarging the model

Under Saint-Gaudens’s supervision, assistants resized the model. A measuring machine located points on the original and transferred them, so that copies could be made accurately to scale.

4. Making the mold

The clay was covered in a wet mixture of gypsum, sand and lime, which captured every texture and fold. When this plaster dried, it formed the mold.

5. Casting in bronze

Once the work met the sculptor’s standards, the molds left Cornish for the foundry, where molten metal was poured to cast the statue in bronze.

6. Finishing

A patina could have completed the work. Instead, the Sherman Monument was covered in layers of gold, bold and striking for the people passing in the street.

7. In the public eye

The general on his horse now stands in a public park for everyone to see — carefully crafted, though, as the poem ends, the process of art is never really finished. It closes with questions for the reader: what should a sculptor enshrine in a work meant to last a lifetime, and what values might public art help define?

At the park

Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park holds smaller recastings of parts of the monument, including a bust of Sherman and the winged figure of Victory.

Sources

Based on "The Process of Sculpture (in Limerick)," Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.