Jules Bastien-Lepage,

1880

Saint-Gaudens met the painter Jules Bastein-Lepage (1848–1884) when the two men were studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the late 1860s. In 1877, Saint-Gaudens returned to Paris and renewed his friendship with the by-then successful artist. During his stay, Bastien-Lepage proposed an exchange, whereby the sculptor would produce a portrait medallion of the artist, and the painter an oil portrait of the sculptor. The result was a full-length painted sketch of Saint-Gaudens (later lost in a studio fire) and this sensitive portrayal of Bastien-Lepage, originally completed in 1880 and repeated in numerous variants. The relief was one of the first exhibited by the artist, and he considered it among his best. According to his son, "none of the medallions my father then modeled satisfied him to the extent of that of Bastien-Lepage, both because he believed the relief was as near perfection as he ever came, and because he was greatly interested in a rare combination of talent and vanity in his sitter."