The Cornish Art Colony

Augustus Saint-Gaudens purchased his home, Aspet, from Charles C. Beaman for $2,500. Seven years prior, he had an opportunity to buy the house for $500 but thought the price was too steep. He rented the house and resided there with his family in the summers until 1900. He was diagnosed with colon cancer and lived at Aspet year-round until his death in 1907.

Read about Augustus Saint-Gaudens and his work.

Who were other Cornish Colony Artists?

Saint-Gaudens, one of America's greatest sculptors, became the center of what was to become a dynamic social and creative community lasting more than twenty years. The circle began to expand almost immediately after Saint-Gaudens arrived. A journal entry reflects: "the spring following my arrival, my friend, Mr. T.W. Dewing, the painter came. He saw. He remained. And from that event the colony developed." (Source: The Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, edited and amplified by Homer Saint-Gaudens, New York:1913 1: 317-18)

Charles Beaman, New York lawyer, brought art to the Connecticut River's Upper Valley in the late 1800s. His generosity and desire to create a "Little New York" led to establishment of the Cornish Art Colony. The American Renaissance in such arts as sculpture, painting and architecture was in its infancy, arising from the wealth generated in the industrialization that followed the Civil War. Beaman purchased many farms and homes which he would later rent or sell to many of the well-known artists, writers, and performers of the time. He began by urging his friend, sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, to move to Cornish promising him many "Lincoln shaped men". Saint-Gaudens was, at that time in 1885, preparing for sculpting the now famous "Standing Lincoln". (source: The Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, edited and amplified by Homer Saint-Gaudens, New York:1913 1: 317-18)