T.C. Steele often painted in the nearby Indiana countryside instead of his studio. Courtesy Brown County CVB
By Herb Sparrow
It’s certainly nothing fancy, but Tom was not a fancy man.”
Steve Sitton was describing the studio of painter and sculptor Thomas Hart Benton, which has been preserved at Benton’s Victorian-style Kansas City, Mo., house.
“It is essentially like it was when he painted,” said Sitton, site administrator for the Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio State Historic Site. “There are brushes stuck in coffee cans, baby-food jars full of paint pigments.”
Several preserved studios such as Benton’s provide fascinating insights into the creative processes of American artists, complete with coffee cans and baby-food jars.
Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio Kansas City, Mo. In the mid-1930s, Benton, known for his vibrant paintings of the American scene, especially the rural and small-town Midwest, and his large public murals, converted half of a carriage house into his art studio. Frames still lean against the wall, preliminary models and art books line shelves, sheet music awaits Benton to play his harmonica, and a stretched canvas appears ready for more brush strokes from Benton, who died in 1975 while working in the studio.
The two-and-a-half-story limestone house is filled with the furnishings and possessions of Benton and his wife, among them clothes, books and furniture.
“You get a look at his lifestyle, not just his artwork,” said Sitton. www.mostateparks.com/Benton.htm (816) 931-5722
C.M. Russell Museum Great Falls, Mont. A simple log cabin next to his Great Falls, Mont., house helped Charlie Russell conjure scenes of cowboys, Indians and wildlife of the untamed West from his earlier days as a wrangler.
Surrounded by cowboy and Indian gear, mounted wildlife and photographs, Russell completed all of his major paintings after 1903 in the cabin, working under a large skylight in the west end.
The cabin remains much as it did when Russell, one of the preeminent painters of Western art, died in 1926.
“The studio is complete with the furnishings of when he was there, as well as the artifacts he used in his paintings,” said Sara Becker, marketing and public relations coordinator for the C.M. Russell Museum, which operates the cabin studio and Russell’s adjacent house.
An addition that was not completed at the time of his death has been finished and contains artifacts and memorabilia of Russell.
Although the gray, two-story frame house has been restored to the first quarter of the 20th century, when Russell and his wife, Nancy, lived there, few of the furnishings are original. www.cmrussell.org (406) 727-8787
Chesterwood Stockbridge, Mass. Sculptor Daniel Chester French spent his summers in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts at a rural retreat where he could work on the public monuments for which he was famous.
“He spent 33 summers here, and he passed away on the property,” said a guide at Chesterwood, French’s preserved estate overlooking appropriately named Monument Mountain.
The estate includes French’s Colonial-revival residence with original furnishings, his large 1898 studio, a barn gallery, the gardens he designed and rolling woodland landscapes.
The towering 30-foot-tall studio in which French sculpted the seated Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington is the centerpiece of the estate.
“The whole studio is dedicated to Lincoln,” said the guide. “That is where he created it.”
French had railroad tracks running into the studio, and he would move his large works outdoors on flatcars so he could study them in natural light. www.chesterwood.org (413) 298-3579
Norman Rockwell Museum Stockbridge, Mass. Groups can get a look at another famous 20th-century American artist near Stockbridge at the Norman Rockwell Museum.
Rockwell’s studio was moved intact from behind his house in Stockbridge to the museum’s 36-acre campus overlooking the Housatonic River Valley.
The cozy studio is filled with his paints, brushes, furnishings, library and travel mementos. His easel, topped with a Roman helmet, as seen in Rockwell’s Triple Self-Portrait, sits in front of a large window that fills most of one wall.
Nearby, a modern structure houses many of Rockwell’s original works, along with changing exhibitions. www.nrm.org (413) 298-4100
T.C. Steele State Historic Site Nashville, Ind. Considered part of the Hoosier Group of American impressionist painters, T.C. Steele purchased land in rural Brown County, Ind., in 1907 and built what became known as “the house of the singing winds.”
Steele later built two studio buildings, a garage, guest cottages and other outbuildings.
Although the studio, with its large east-facing windows, is filled with his personal possessions, the wooded hills and ravines on the 211-acre state site were his inspiration and where he did most of his painting.
“His inspiration was the hills and scenery,” said Debbie Dunbar, director of marketing and communications for the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau. “The hiking trails take you out to where he painted. He did a lot of work outdoors.” Dunbar said the studio was created mainly to display his work. This year, to mark the centennial of his arrival in Brown County, 12 of Steele’s paintings that have never been seen in public are on display in the studio.
The house, which was donated to the state by his widow, is filled with the couple’s furnishings and artifacts, and his paintings. www.browncounty.com (800) 753-3255
Back to Articles
