New England Diary

View Original

The art around our greatest president

Istvan Banyai, “Set in Stone” (cover illustration of The New Yorker, digital), by Istvan Banyai, in the exhibition “The Lincoln Memorial Illustrated,’’ at the Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Mass., May 7-Sept. 4, in collaboration with Chesterwood.

The museum says: “Approximately fifty historical and contemporary artworks by noted illustrators and cartoonists will be featured, as will archival photographs, sculptural elements, artifacts and ephemera.” For more information, please visit nrm.org.

Studio and garden at Chesterwood

Photos by I, Daderot

Chesterwood was the summer estate and studio of American sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850–1931), in Stockbridge. French created the brooding-looking sculpture of Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial. Most of French's originally 150-acre estate is now owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which operates the property as a museum and sculpture garden. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965 in recognition of French's importance in American sculpture.

Inside French’s studio