Washington

Washington has attracted a number of artists who came to the picturesque town as students at The Gunnery School. William Hamilton Gibson, one of these boys, became one of the nation’s leading writers and illustrators about the natural world in the last decades of the 19th century. Several of his books featured scenes in Washington, and he exhibited Washington scenes at the 1893 Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, which brought the area to the attention of like-minded artists. Gibson began spending summers in Washington and built a home and studio there in 1895. Henry Siddons Mowbray, who painted many of the murals for the buildings commissioned from the architectural firm McKim Mead and White, and the painter Herbert Faulkner followed Gibson to Washington, where they too built elegant homes and studios. In 1907, John Folinsbee, later to become well known as a member of the artist circle in New Hope, Pennsylvania, also came to study at The Gunnery.

Return to Art Trail Start.