New Rochelle artist colony

The New Rochelle artist colony was a community of celebrity artists, actors, musicians, playwrights and writers who settled in the city of New Rochelle, New York during the early twentieth century. This large, diverse artistic presence contributed to New Rochelle's reputation as a congenial place to live and work. By the 1920's, New Rochelle had more artists per capita than almost any city in the United States, and newspaper headlines were referring to the community as "Greenwich Village without the Greenwich."

The colony included artists such as Irene and Vernon Castle, the internationally renowned dance team, actor Francis Wilson, writer Augustus Thomas, and artists Robert I. Aitken, Edward Kemble, Rufus Zogbaum, Alton Tobey and Julian Hawthorne. Ellen Emmett Rand, F. Tolles Chamberlain, Alonzo Klaw, H. R. Stanton, Herman Lambden, Sophie Schuyler Day, Montague Castle, Martha B. Bintiff, and A. Phimister Proctor were some of the other lesser known artists.

Illustrators

The New Rochelle artist colony was most well-known for its unprecedented number of prominent American illustrators. Far enough outside of Manhattan to offer a refuge from distraction, but an easy commute to the city's magazine and publishing houses, New Rochelle had natural beauty, with its Long Island Sound coastline, and a social and cultural climate that these artists apparently found congenial. In the early 1920’s it was said that more than fifty percent of the illustrations in the country’s leading publications, and 90% of the illustrations in the Saturday Evening Post, were produced by artists from the city.

Norman Rockwell was the most prominent member of the community. Clyde Forsythe, who shared Frederick Remington's former studio with Rockwell early on, convinced him to submit cover ideas to the Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell would later create over 320 covers over the course of his career. Forsythe also introduced Rockwell to his second wife, Mary Barstow, who was a nationally syndicated cartoonist.

Coles Phillips, a freelance illustrator, developed a signature device, the "Fade-away Girl," that appeared in popular magazines and in advertisements. He would block in parts of the face and figure and leave the rest to the imagination.

Nell Brinkley illustrated newspaper romance stories and was often called the Queen of Cartoons. Her "Brinkley Girl" became the 1920's equivalent of Charles Dana Gibson's "Gibson Girl" two decades earlier.

Far from struggling, most of the illustrators who lived in New Rochelle were highly successful, designing covers and illustrations for popular magazines as well as images for advertising and cartoon strips. They were the national celebrities in the days before television, as print was the way people got their information and they were acquainted with these artists on a daily basis.

Most were paid well enough to live comfortable, in some cases lavish, suburban lifestyles. J.C. Leyendecker, creator of the Arrow Collar Man advertising image and frequent contributor to the Saturday Evening Post, lived in a palatial chateau and estate overlooking Long Island Sound. Syndicated political cartoonist Clare Briggs built the stately, English-Tudor home 'Blue Anchor', adjacent to the golf course of the Wykagyl Country Club where he was a member. Frederic Remington, known for his drawings and paintings of the American West, lived in one of the gothic-revival homes designed by Alexander Jackson Davis on Lather's Hill.

New Rochelle's illustrators included:

Harold Anderson Franklin Booth George Brehm Worth Brehm Clare Briggs Nell Brinkley Howard Chandler Christy Daniel Content Dean Cornwell Alice J. Crosby John Cullen Murphy Walter De Maris John Philip Falter

Clyde Forsythe Charles Dana Gibson Irving Hansen Lucius W. Hitchcock Walter Beach Humphrey Herbert S. Kates Frank X. Leyendecker J.C. Leyendecker Tom Lovell Orson Byron Lowell Frederick Opper A.S. Packer Al Parker

Edward Penfield Coles Phillips Charles M. Relyea Frederic Remington Norman Rockwell Mead Schaeffer Leon A. Shafer Remington Schuyler Frederick L. Stanley Doald Teague George T. Tobin Edmund Franklin Ward Revere F. Wistefuff

New Rochelle Art Association

In 1912, a number of artists from the community organized the New Rochelle Art Association. The organization set formal goals among which were to “set an educational standard in the Fine Arts and promote interest in art in the community.”. The associations founding members included Norman Rockwell, J.C.Leyendecker, F.X.Leyendecker, Ernest Albert, Frederick Dana Marsh, G.Glen Newell, Orson Lowell, Remington Schuyler, Alta West Salisbury, George T. Tobin, Lucius W. Hitchcock, Edward Penfield, and A.G. Heaton.

External links

• Norman Rockwell, The New Rochelle Years
• Toast of the Town - Norman Rockwell and the artists of New Rochelle

See also

• art colony