Augustus Saint-Gaudens
American, 1848-1907
First on view at the museum in 1921 as part of an exhibition of work from the collection of John J. Albright and his wife, Augustus Saint-Gaudens's eight caryatid figures were finally acquisitioned as part of the museum’s collection and installed on the east façade of the 1905 Building in June 1934. Based on similar sculptures supporting porches on the Erechtheum—an ancient Greek temple on the Acropolis at Athens—Saint-Gaudens's versions for the museum represent various branches of the arts, including architecture, music, sculpture, and painting, as well as victory.