W hen Daniel Chester French spoke of his summer studio and home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, he declared, "I spend six months of the year...in heaven."¹ The setting was perfect for an artist. Through the open door of the studio, French could look out to carefully tended lilies, marigolds, hollyhocks, and zinnias lining a long walk leading north to the woods. Beyond them, French could admire a panoramic view of the rolling Berkshire hills. Inspiration was replaced with dusty practicality inside the studio. This workspace was designed specifically for creating monumental public sculpture. French spent 34 summers at Chesterwood, working daily in this studio on such important works as the Abraham Lincoln that forms the centerpiece of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The property, operated as a historic house museum by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has changed little since French's death in 1931. Modern visitors still comment on the contrast between the elaborate summer "cottage" and carefully landscaped grounds, and the functional studio of a hard-working man whose business was sculpture. ¹ "Daniel French, U.S. Sculpture Dean, 80 Today" New York Herald Tribune, April 20, 1930; cited in Michael Richman, Daniel Chester French, An American Sculptor (Washington, D.C.: The Preservation Press, 1976), 199.
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