A Utopian Artist Colony: Byrdcliffe

Published by the Two Red Roses Foundation, November 16, 2020

Envision a place to escape the modern-day hustle-and-bustle, where you could create art without distraction, surrounded by untouched nature. At the turn of the 20th century, Byrdcliffe Art Colony, one of the first American utopian artist colonies, was that perfect setting.

In 1902, Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead and his wife, Jane Byrd McCall, established the Byrdcliffe Art Colony on 1,000 acres outside of Woodstock, NY, and named it by combining their own middle names. Their goal was to create a community of like-minded people reflecting the teachings of John Ruskin and William Morris, fathers of the Arts and Crafts movement. Byrdcliffe was a place where people could live in the quiet country, creating art that followed the tenets of the Arts and Crafts movement, while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Artists, writers, craftsmen, and musicians could inhabit the community year-round, selling their creations to support the neighborhood. While craftspeople at Byrdcliffe dabbled in almost every art form associated with the movement − metalwork, pottery, weaving, jewelry, woodworking, painting and photography − the colony is most known for its furniture.

Byrdcliffe’s woodworking shop operated a short time, between 1903-1905, and only about 50 pieces of hand-crafted furniture were made during that period. They created simple pieces, in boxy forms, with decorations like elegantly carved flowers or painted panels. The Two Red Roses Foundation (TRRF) collection includes several pieces of furniture produced at the colony.

Carved flora was also a decorative motif often used by Byrdcliffe’s furniture makers. Charming carved and painted hollyhock flowers adorn both sides of a magazine stand (fig. 3). Arched recesses surrounding the flowers give them added dimension. The dark green blanket chest (fig. 4) is decorated with rectangular panels of carved, polychromed lilies. Designed by Zulma Steele, the lily became a symbol for the Byrdcliffe brand and was used to mark their furniture.

Consistent with the Arts and Crafts movement’s ideals, all of Byrdcliffe’s furniture was constructed by hand, with an emphasis on the beauty of natural materials and decorations derived from nature. Although it produced high quality and beautiful work in the Arts and Crafts tradition, the Byrdcliffe Art Colony was never able to sustain itself financially.

Today part of the original property is maintained by the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, and still serves as a center for the arts. The furniture once made at the Byrdcliffe Art Colony, however, remains a true reminder of the Arts and Crafts values that were at the core of the utopian artist colony. The Two Red Roses Foundation owns the largest collection of Byrdcliffe furniture anywhere, which will be displayed in the soon-to-be opened Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement.