Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907)

The present work depicts Stanley Matthews (1824-1889), of Cincinnati, Ohio, and his second wife Mary Theaker, of Washington, D.C. Matthews graduated from Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, in 1840 and promptly pursued a legal career which lead to his appointment as justice to the United States Supreme Court under President James Garfield in 1881. The present portrait was commissioned by the sitter's daughter and the artist was paid a sum of $12,000. A larger example in marble resides in the collection of Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, and a reduced example, the same size as the present work, is in the collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio.