1897 - 1907 The Last Decade

Saint-Gaudens continued to work steadily, aided by assistants including his brother Louis and the gifted Frederick MacMonnies, until his death. Diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 1900, he decided to live full time in Cornish. A fire in his barn destroyed his letters, sketch books, and many unfinished pieces; the same fate destroyed a redesigned studio quickly built afterward. Saint-Gaudens, however, was surrounded by a colony of studio assistants and artists including Paul Manship, who had been drawn there by Saint-Gaudens' stature. After Saint-Gaudens' death, his widow Augusta and his son Homer established Aspet as a memorial to the artist. In 1965 it became a historic site of the National Park Service.

Saint-Gaudens' studio, Cornish, 1901 (Saint-Gaudens is third from the left), U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, New Hampshire; Aspet, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, New Hampshire