We took a short visit to Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, NH after paddling Grafton Pond last Saturday. If you enjoy art and nature, it’s definitely worth a stop. It’s a beautiful outdoor site featuring the home, gardens, and studios of Augustus Saint Gaudens, a noted American sculptor during the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries.
We didn’t spend a lot of time here, so I won’t pretend to tell you everything you can find at this historic site, but here’s a little about what we did see:
We didn’t spend a lot of time here, so I won’t pretend to tell you everything you can find at this historic site, but here’s a little about what we did see:
Saint-Gaudens created public monuments, cameos, and portrait reliefs, as well as some of the first sculpted U.S. coins. Some of his most celebrated works are of Civil War heroes. We saw beautiful recasts of some of his work, including one of the Lincoln statue (above) that stands in Chicago. Other original works are in Washington, D.C., on Boston Common, and in Central Park, to name a few.
While Saint-Gaudens work is definitely impressive, I was most captivated by a current exhibit featuring the work of Massachusetts artist Alan Colby. Colby has sculpted 200 heads out of limestone of people he’s met at the Dorchester House in Boston. You can see some of them above. His exhibit runs through October 31st.
Aside from taking in some artwork, we walked on the Ravine Trail, a fairly steep ¼ mile trail that takes you down a path along the “Blow-Me-Up-Brook” and ends with a swimming hole built by Saint-Gaudens. There’s also an outdoor marble temple where the ashes of Saint-Gaudens and many family members are buried. All in all, our stop at this historic site was a great little side trip on a beautiful summer day.
Things to Know Before You Go: The site is open daily from late May through late October. Admission is $5 per person. On Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009 admission is free in honor of National Public Lands Day. Visit the Saint-Gaudens website for more details.
