Head of Victory 1897 - 1907

Augustus Saint-Gaudens made this bronze Head of Victory; we don’t know exactly when. It looks like a fragment of something bigger, doesn’t it? Like a piece of a dream. Saint-Gaudens’s marks are so present. It feels like you can see every touch, every adjustment. The texture alone, the darks and lights, must have taken so many tries. The hair especially, is like a stormy sea, or a field of wheat bending in the wind. How did he get that effect? And her expression, so calm, so above it all. Look at the laurel wreath. Each leaf seems to have been individually placed, like a little victory in itself. There’s a real push and pull between precision and freedom here. It reminds me of Rodin, but more contained, more classical. The head looks forward to the future. It tells us that beauty is found in labor, and victory in truth.