West Cornwall & Cornwall Bridge

West Cornwall, an active station stop on the Housatonic Railroad and well-provided with a railroad hotel and summer inns, was the site of many painting trips throughout the second half of the 19th century. David Johnson and John Bunyan Bristol painted in the area, and many scenes of West Cornwall were exhibited in national exhibitions, including the St. Louis World’s Fair. The covered bridges at West Cornwall and at Cornwall Bridge were a popular motif for artists in search of icons of early New England.

The picturesque villages were also the home for a series of artist-led painting schools. Rene De Quelin advertised one here in the 1920s, although it was actually on the west side of the river in Sharon, as was the school George Baer operated in the 1930s in his wife’s family home overlooking the Housatonic. Spencer Nichols, a former designer at the Tiffany Studios in New York, operated a summer school a few miles south at Cornwall Bridge in 1930 and 1931.

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