Morgan Colt

For the young horse of the Morgan breed, see Morgan horse.
Morgan Colt
Born 11 September 1876
Summit, New Jersey, US
Died 12 June 1926 (aged 49)
New Hope, Pennsylvania, US
Nationality American
Occupation Architect, painter and craftsman

Morgan Colt (11 September 1876 – 12 June 1926) was an architect, traditional furniture craftsman and impressionist painter. Much of his work has been destroyed.

Life

Butcher Wagon (1920)

Morgan Colt was born in Summit, New Jersey on 11 September 1876. He attended Columbia University and qualified as an architect. He practiced this profession in New York City.[1]

In 1912 Colt moved to New Hope, Pennsylvania so he could dedicate his time to art.[1] He built a houseboat, the Deewaydin, meaning to live on it with his wife on the Delaware Canal. That turned out not to be practical. They moved into a house for a while.[2] He then rented a barn that had housed pigs on the farm of his friend William Langson Lathrop at Phillips Mill, and converted it into a home and studio.[1] The house was given a Tudor style.[2]

Colt was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, and designed and made wood and iron furniture using traditional techniques He also practiced landscape painting.[1] In 1916 Colt, Lathrop, Rae Sloan Bredin, Charles Rosen, Daniel Garber and Robert Spencer formed The New Hope Group to arrange exhibitions of their work.[3][4] Colt added more buildings to his property in 1919 which he called the Gothic Shops, and in which he exhibited his furniture and metalwork.[2]

Morgan Colt died in New Hope, Pennsylvania on 12 June 1926.[1] He was aged forty nine.

Work

Colt was known more as a craftsman than a painter. He specialized in hand-wrought iron garden furniture and fire screens. He did exhibit with the New Hope Group in 1916-17 at the Cincinnati Art Museum, Detroit Art Institute, Corcoran Gallery, Carnegie Institute and Arlington Gallery in New York City. His painting Canal Boat was praised for its quality. Much has been lost. After his death the purchaser of his property destroyed most of the paintings he found there, not understanding what they were worth.[2]

References

Citations

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Sources