MacGougan at Large
Notes on New Hampshire - 1
Déjà Vu?
My wife and I recently spent five days, four nights in New Hampshire. This was mostly about getting into shape. We’re planning a hiking vacation with her sisters later in the summer and one of us spent the last forty years at a sedentary office job and gets winded collecting the mail.
As we were driving up to New Hampshire from Connecticut, my wife asked if I’d be interested in stopping to see Saint-Gaudens. I asked what it was. She told me it was the home and studio of a late 19th to early 20th Century sculptor who had made his name depicting Abraham Lincoln. The site is a kind of park with copies of statues on the grounds.
“We’ve been there,” I said. “I remember it.”
In fact, we hadn’t been there. What I was remembering was another site fitting that exact same description. I was remembering Chesterwood, the home and studio of Daniel Chester French (1850-1931), who sculpted the image of Lincoln that appears in the Lincoln Memorial. Chesterwood is in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and is operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
By contrast, the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park is the home and studio of Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907), who sculpted a standing Lincoln for Lincoln Park in Chicago and a seated Lincoln for Grant Park in Chicago. It’s located in Cornish, New Hampshire (maybe a two and a half hour drive from Chesterwood) and is operated by the National Park Service.
Surprisingly for a state that has the most impressive mountain range in the Northeast, Saint-Gaudens is the only National Park in New Hampshire. The White Mountains are mostly under the jurisdiction of the Forest Service.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens reportedly went to New Hampshire because he was looking for a Lincoln impersonator who could model for him. You’d think he’d have had better odds staying in New York City, but apparently he found somebody suitable in Cornish. In the Small World Department, Cornish is also the town where J.D. Salinger decided to move to live out his life in quiet seclusion. Salinger was tall and lanky, so maybe he blended in with the local Lincoln impersonators.
Having now visited both Chesterwood and Saint-Gaudens, here’s how I break down the comparison.
Best Lincoln Statue: Chesterwood. You can’t beat the Lincoln Memorial.
Best Non-Lincoln Statue: Saint-Gaudens. The studio features a reproduction of the Diana statue that for many years was the weathervane atop the Madison Square Garden building. A beautiful, naked, and seven foot tall woman balances on one toe and aims an arrow from her bow. Pretty striking.
Nicest Studio: Saint-Gaudens. Alongside the working area is a loggia with a natural vine canopy where you can sit and admire the pretty house or the pretty grounds or the side of the studio, which is decorated with friezes molded from the Parthenon.
Practicality: Tie. Chesterwood is closer to Connecticut but Saint-Gaudens accepts the National Parks Senior Pass.