Morgan Colt was an architect, traditional furniture craftsman and impressionist painter. Much of his work was accidentally destroyed after his death.
Life
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. In 1912 Colt moved to New Hope, Pennsylvania, so he could dedicate his time to art. 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. 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. The house was given a Tudor style. Morgan then began to build his "Little English Village". Colt's little English village consisted of seven English cottages of various English architectural styles. Colt built an English Gatehouse cottage which is connected to the large Medieval iron gate at the front of his property and where all the New Hope area residents can see as they drive past the Phillips Mill. Then moving backwards onto Colt's little English village Colt built an English carriage house. Going back through another set of iron gates Colt then built his Gothic-style artist-studio, Colt and his wife had found an old English abbey that was in ruin and dismantled all the wooden Gothic trusses and took molds of this ancient structure’s interior and shipped them back to New Hope, barged them up the canal and to their current location in Colts Gothic studio. across from that Colt built his Gothic iron Forge, then down the village walkway that Colt built out of cast concrete, Colt built his brick English Tudor style woodworking shop where he made all his beautiful wood furniture and chests all carved with Gothic English tracery. In addition to Colt’s paintings, many of his wooden furniture and chests are in Museums and private collections too. and just across from the woodworking shop Colt built the most beautiful Norman French style cottage which he used as his dog kennel. All through Colt's Little English village you can see his beautiful wooden hand carved English tracery on all his cottages and main house. Colt's entire property is a work of art and should be preserved and protected. 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. 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. Colt added more buildings to his property in 1919 which he called the Gothic Shops, and in which he exhibited his furniture and metalwork. Morgan Colt died in New Hope, Pennsylvania, on 12 June 1926. 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.
