The New Hope Art Colony: Beginnings

"Twilight After Storm" by William Lathrop

"The Late Nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw the development of prominent American art colonies. Among these were colonies in Dublin, New Hampshire; Old Lyme and Cos Cob, Connecticut; Woodstock, New York; Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico, Provincetown, Massachusetts; and New Hope, Pennsylvania. Many developed as a response to summer plein air landscape painting, which French and Munich trained American art students had practiced abroad. Many young painters who desired to pursue careers in landscape painting were attracted to Bucks County for the beauty of its landscape as well as its proximity to New York and Philadelphia.

A physician, Dr. George Marshall, rather than an artist, was most responsible for the founding of the New Hope Art Colony. His property was a 500-acre plot called Phillips Mill, which would later become an exhibition place for the Pennsylvania Impressionists, as well as for generations of Bucks County painters and sculptors to follow. It was Dr. Marshall who persuaded William Langson Lathrop, a noted landscape painter, to come to the area. This long-time friend ended up buying the miller's house and surrounding farm from Marshall in 1899.

In 1902 'The Philadelphia Times' described Lathrop and his surroundings as follows;

'William Lathrop... was lured away from New York some years ago by this bit of Pennsylvania loveliness. The ancient inn he opened and refitted as his home. The interior of the cooper shop he transformed into his studio, and here he has lived ever since with his family, master of the entire settlement, presiding over his eighty surrounding acres and keeping them secure from intrusion and alteration. An ideal place in which the artists may dream their dreams and transfer them to canvas without fear of interruption from the outside world... The little cottages have gradually been fitted up to accommodate extra guests... In some, happy families of art students live the year round...'

Many artists settled in the area because of William Lathrop's influence. Daniel Garber, Morgan Colt, Margaret Spencer, and Mary Perkins Taylor and her husband. His wife became hostess to ever-increasing numbers of visitors at her Sunday afternoon teas. Guests included neighbors as well as Lathrop's students and other artists who moved into the area."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Pennsylvania Impressionists" by Thomas Folk.)