“CORNELIA FANNING GAY”: This marble bust by Daniel Chester French is featured in “Monuments and Myths: The America of Sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French,” on view through January 5 at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pa. (Photo by Bruce Schwartz)

The James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pa., now presents “Monuments and Myths: The America of Sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French,” the first exhibition to explore the intersecting careers and significance of two of America’s most preeminent sculptors of the Gilded Age. The exhibition is on view through January 5.

Daniel Chester French (1850–1931) and Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907) were friends and sometimes rivals who transformed sculpture in the U.S. They produced dozens of the nation’s most recognizable public artworks, including French’s Seated Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and Saint-Gaudens’s Diana, which graced the top of Madison Square Garden in New York.

Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin, Ireland, and immigrated to New York as an infant. French was born in Exeter, N.H. After coming of age in Civil War America and training in Europe, both artists returned to the U.S. in a moment when sculpture had immense power to shape the visual and intellectual landscape of the nation during a period of rapid industrial growth and developing sociopolitical structures.

“Monuments and Myths” features approximately 70 sculptures, models, maquettes, and more drawn from the collections of the two artists’ historic homes, the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park and French’s Chesterwood. The exhibition features six thematic sections, beginning with an overview of the artists’ studio practices in rural New England, both of which were dynamic spaces of creativity, education, and exchange.

With an aesthetic of formal elegance, Saint-Gaudens and French created a picture of national ambition rooted in conceptions of liberty, grandeur, and common cause. Filled with multiple meanings and contested histories, the artworks in this exhibition encourage visitors to question the stories that public art tells and to explore what histories remain hidden from view.

“It is an opportune time to examine the role of historic monuments, and the impact of these sculptures and how their legacy continues to influence our perception of America,” said Laura Turner Igoe, Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest Chief Curator.

Visitors can also enjoy a related exhibition from Bucks County, Pa., artist George Anthonisen, who served as sculptor-in-residence at the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park in the 1970s. “George R. Anthonisen: Meditations on the Human Condition” celebrates Anthonisen’s 65-year artistic career of creating visual dialogues with his figurative sculptures. The exhibition is open until October 13 and features more than 40 bronze sculptures, maquettes, and frescoes on view both in the galleries and the Museum’s Sculpture Garden.

“Monuments and Myths: The America of Sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French” is co-organized by the American Federation of Arts, Chesterwood, a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Saint-Gaudens Memorial in partnership with Saint-Gaudens National Historic Park.

The Michener Art Museum is located at 138 South Pine Street in Doylestown, Pa. For more information, visit michenerartmuseum.org.