The Cornish Art Colony (or Cornish Artists’ Colony, or Cornish Colony) was a popular
art colony centered in
Cornish, New Hampshire, from about 1895 through the years of
World War I. Attracted by the natural beauty of the area, about 100 artists, sculptors, writers, designers, and politicians lived there either full-time or during the summer months. With views across the
Connecticut River Valley to
Mount Ascutney in Vermont, the bucolic scenery was considered to resemble that of an Italian landscape.
The central figure of the Cornish Colony was
Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Beginning around 1885, Augustus attracted a summer colony of artists that grew into a single extended social network. Some were related, some were friends, some were promising students from the
Art Students League of New York that Saint-Gaudens had co-founded, and some were Saint-Gaudens' assistants who developed significant careers of their own.
Though the colony's name referred to its social center in the village of Cornish, geographically it was spread out over the villages of
Windsor, Vermont, and
Plainfield, New Hampshire, as well. Windsor was the mailing address for the entire area and the arrival point of most of the colonists, who usually came from
New York City by train.[1]
People associated with the Cornish Colony
The following people are known to have been part of the colony:[1]
^MacAdam, Barbara (1998). Winter's promise : Willard Metcalf in Cornish, New Hampshire, 1909-1920. Hanover, NH: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College.
ISBN0944722229.