Head of Victory

Head of Victory derives from one of several studies Saint-Gaudens made for the striding, windblown allegorical figure on his monument (1892–1903) to the Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman at the southeast corner of Manhattan’s Central Park. While this version of the head differs from the one he ultimately used for the monumental figure, it shares that figure’s dual symbolism, emphasized by the Greek words inscribed on the base: NIKE–EIPHNH (Victory–Peace).