The statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Sculptor Daniel Chester French made the statue. (Associated Press/Craig Harmon)

In the years after the Civil War, America's cities exploded, as did their demand for big, bold works of public art to celebrate the country's newfound urban vigour.

Many of those pieces were created by Daniel Chester French, whose work includes some of the most renowned outdoor sculptures in the country, from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to the Minute Man in Concord.

But to do the work of making cities beautiful, French needed country air, and for much of his life he spent six months a year in this quiet corner of the Berkshires.

Today, 48 hectares of Chesterwood, as French's farm is known, are open to the public. Roughly 23,000 visitors a year stop by, in between summer relaxing, fall "leaf peeping" or a trip to the nearby Norman Rockwell Museum. There are extensive grounds and a large collection of French's work, thanks to his daughter Margaret French Cresson, who assembled them after her father's death in 1931 and donated the property to The National Trust, a preservation organization, in 1969.

Each year from 1897 until his death here in 1931 at age 81, French took in the magnificent views and served tea on his porch to friends and strangers alike. But it was hardly summer vacation: French worked six days a week, running a busy operation out of a studio he built, and labouring on some of his most famous monumental pieces, including the famed seated Lincoln that is the centerpiece of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

French was born in New Hampshire in 1850 and tried to find a place there suitable for summering, but it was too far from his winter home in New York. In 1896 the family discovered Stockbridge and French's wife fell in love with the place.

"His wife had a real pleasant experience walking down the elm-covered main street to the cemetery," said Chesterwood's director, Michael Panhorst. "She said something to the effect of, 'Danny, I don't know where you're going to live, but I'm living here.'"

It's easy to see the appeal. The house and studio overlook Monument Mountain, then down the Housatonic River valley to Mount Everett, 27 kilometres away on the Connecticut and New York borders.

French enjoyed country living but remained the epitome of Yankee thrift. As a boy he showed his talents sculpting turnips, but by the turn of the century he was running a thriving business, with assistants turning out commissions in his studio here, then moving them outside on a 12-metre railroad line to view them in full light.

Human sculpture figures carrying umbrellas are seen outside the home and studio of the late sculptor Daniel Chester French in Stockbridge, Mass. (Associated Press/Justin Pope)