From Colden Square to Clinton Square

Situated in Colden Square from 1896, the statue of Governor George Clinton was relocated in 1989, to where he stands now, in Clinton Square.

Clinton Square

George Clinton Statue, Water Street at First Street

The original statue was created by sculptor H. K. Brown and stands in in Washington D.C, the copy that was erected in Newburg was recast the sculptor’s nephew, H. K. Bush-Brown.

Colden Square

 

Clinton Statue

 

Additional Resources

City of Newburgh

At the corner of Fullerton Ave. and Third Street, Clinton Square marks the entrance to the Colonial Terraces district. In the center is a statue of General and Governor George Clinton.

Originally in Colden Square, the statue of Clinton was dedicated on October 6, 1896. A copy of the statue by local sculptor Henry K. Brown that stands in the Capitol in Washington, it was cast in bronze by his nephew, H. K. Bush-Brown. According to Ruttenber in 1881, “it may with truth be said of George Clinton that he was to the State of New York what Washington was to the nation.” He served as Brigadier General in the Continental Army, and was the first New York State Governor in 1777.

 

Clarence Kerr Chatterton

Source: Clarence Kerr Chatterton

Chatterton Painting of Clinton Square, Newburgh, NY

“I believe that
an artist should
express himself
with as little fuss
as possible
in a frank, uncompromising manner.”

Clinton Square, c. 1917, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 in.

Early in the summer of 1917, Chatterton rented a small office on the second floor of the Highland Bank building in downtown Newburgh. It was cramped and hot, but by sticking his head out of the window he had a good bird’s-eye view in three directions. He spent the whole summer painting there and the three views became three large oil paintings — Water Street, Saturday Shopping, and Clinton Square.

In 1925, when he was 45 years old, Chatterton decided that a one-man show in a prestigious New York gallery was necessary for the advancement of his career. He approached the Wildenstein Gallery and, although they objected at first that they did not handle American artists, they finally agreed to give him an exhibition.

Wildenstein had three galleries: two large ones connected by a small one. Chatterton’s show was held in the small gallery, between a Toulouse Lautrec exhibition in one of the large galleries and a Fragonard show in the other. Evidently Chatterton’s work, mostly paintings of his Newburgh period, did not suffer in the invitable comparison as critical comment was quite favorable.

Although Clinton Square was not sold during the exhibition, the Wildenstein staff was so impressed that they included it in their Tri-National Exhibition, which they organized and sent to Europe and South America in 1926.

 

 

Newburgh Again: General Anthony Wayne statue at Washington’s Headquarters

 

Henry Kirke Bush-Brown
  Henry Kirke Bush-Brown (1857–1935) was a distinguished sculptor raised in Newburgh (and the adopted nephew of renowned sculptor Henry Kirke Brown, another Newburgh resident). 
  
For the Hudson-Fulton celebration in 1909, he created an equestrian statue of General Anthony Wayne, an American Revolution general, which was dedicated in a grand fashion.
 Eugenia Boisseau recalls the Newburgh 1909 celebrations 50 years later by saying:
 “In Newburgh that afternoon the equestrian statue of Gen. Anthony Wayne, which still stands on the east lawn of Washington’s Headquarters, was dedicated. 1500 persons attended the ceremonies with the sculptor, Henry K. Bush-Brown of Balmville, giving an address. The presiding officer was Mayor McClung. Howard Thornton, President of Washington’s Headquarters Board of Trustees, formally accepted the statue. Music was provided by Alsdorf’s Orchestra. The Rev. Alfred J. Wilson, pastor of the Unitarian Church of Our Father, delivered the invocation, and the Rev. John Huske, rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church, gave the benediction.”
Although Eugenia Boisseau’s recount states the was still standing on the east lawn in 1959, A. J. Schenkman states in his book, Washington’s Headquarters in Newburgh, “that the statue was never bronzed, so by 1910, the sculpture deteriorated due to exposure to the elements without protection.”