Sarah Luria

The Shaw Memorial
 

                                        
 

Saint-Gaudens' Shaw Memorial is both famous and unknown. That may have something to do with its peculiar setting. It is located on Beacon Street directly across from the State House. Behind the Memorial is the Boston Common which slopes down to Park Street. When walking up Beacon Street, the State House so dominates the top of Beacon Hill that it is quite possible to walk right by the Shaw Memorial without even seeing it. All eyes turn toward the State House. Nevertheless, the Memorial has received much praise. A quote from a review of the work in 1897 just before it was unveiled reveals some of the reasons why it is so admired:

...Shaw is not on parade. He is making his way to the front, surrounded by his men. The head is strongly modeled, but with no exaggeration. His pose is steady...In front of their leader, behind him, back of him, come the colored soldiers...There is the most faithful study of uniforms, but without any attempt at picturesqueness of display...What is the effect? The grandest one. It tells its story in the most impressive way. It is a departure, and one to be remembered, because there are no mock heroics in it--and the greatest power is the one carried out by the simplest factors. (New York Times, Saturday Review, May 29, 1897.

The Shaw Memorial no longer looks quite like this, but this is how it looked in the 1960's when Lowell would have seen it. It is difficult to see but Shaw's sword has been broken off, and it the entire relief is in sad need of cleaning. Restoration occured some years later and lighting was added to make the relief more visible at night.

There is much to analyze in the relief, including Shaw's depiction relative to his men.
 

 Source: Photo by Richard Benson in Lincoln Kirstein, Lay This Laurel (New York:  Eakins Press, 1973).

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