American Impressionism

The complex of traditional adobe buildings, the earliest parts of which date back to the 1830s, includes the home and studio of Eanger Irving Couse and two studios of Joseph Henry Sharp. The two were leading painters and members of the Taos Society of Artists (TSA), which they helped found in 1915. The architecture, furnishings, collections, gardens and views here provide unparalleled insight into the artistic life of the Taos art colony.

The Bush-Holley House features two distinct time periods – the New Nation (1790-1825), when it was owned by a wealthy merchant, and its later life as a boarding house and home to the Cos Cob art colony (1890-1920). The house displays art and furnishings from both eras. The artists of the “Cos Cob Clapboard School,” as Childe Hassam dubbed it, found inspiration in the atmospheric old house.