Together with these recognitions came others of equal significance. In the late nineties he was made by the French Government an Officer of the Legion of Honor and a Corresponding Member of the Société des Beaux-Arts, and later from the same source came an offer to purchase certain of his bronzes for the Luxembourg Museum in Paris. In 1904 he was elected Honorary Foreign Academician of the Royal Academy of London, and among his other later distinctions may be included his memberships in the National Academy of New York and the Academy of St. Luke, Rome. Constantly he answered the call of Europe and found delight and profit in his travels; but the United States grew more dear to him with each passing year. “I belong in America,” he wrote; “that is my home, that is where I want to be and to remain.” But now the tireless energy of his early life began to show its mark on the vigorous vitality which had so long supported him. With his work, and congenial assistants and friends, he began to identify himself more closely with the simple life of his Cornish home. On the third of August, 1907, came the final episode in his memorable career. A long illness attended by much suffering had failed to separate him from his work; carried to his studio to superintend the work of his assistants, he labored until the end. But his life was over, and as he had lived in a realm of spiritual beauty, so in the quiet peace of the New Hampshire hills his spirit passed. Augustus Saint-Gaudens, although of foreign birth and for many years, during the early period of his life, a resident abroad, “remained as distinctly American in his art as if he had come from a long line of native ancestors. He showed his Americanism in striking out in a totally new vein and making his own traditions.” Of his art much has been written, but a few quotations may suffice. “The special note of the medallions which are conspicuous among his first productions is one of delicacy, and in the character of that delicacy lies a source of strength which was from first to last of immense service.” His touch was “at once caressing and bold,” and he delighted “in giving a clear, even forcible, impression of the personality before him. It is portraiture for the sake of truth and beauty, not for the sake of technique.” In his work in the round, the Adams memorial stands as his “one memorable effort in the sphere of loftiest abstraction. His other greatest triumphs were won in the field of portraiture.” In his studies of historical subjects, Saint-Gaudens “struck the one definitive note, made his Lincoln or Sherman a type which generations must revere and which no future statues can invalidate.” “People think a sculptor has an easy life in a studio,” he once said. “It’s hard labor in a factory.” And often he remarked, “You can do anything you please. It’s the way it’s done that makes the difference.”