4. Return to America & New Hope

Moving to New Hope

Rosin and his wife would spend a year in a cramped space in Greenwich Village before Rosin, who despised city living, decided to leave. A trip to visit his old friends from his days at the academy, namely Miller, Hogue, Lathrop, Badura, and Ney, who had all settled in the Delaware Valley – brought Rosin to New Hope, and he knew that was where he wanted to be. He rented a small studio and, with less than $3 in his pocket to last the summer, began to work to support his family. He was finally able to secure an acre of land from Tyson Nimick, offering to sculpt a portrait of Nimick’s daughter Tibby as payment.^[1] This wouldn’t be the last time Rosin would barter using his sculptures, as he apparently paid for dental work that very same way.^[2] But now with his own plot of land, he set to building his first house – a small, four-room cottage with attached studio.

Rosin settled quickly in the New Hope art community, becoming fast friends with his neighbors. He and Bill Ney, whom he had met in Paris, became close, and they would often get together to play checkers or have coffee. When Rosin told another of his neighbors, Skillman, that he was worried about building his new house, Skillman assured him he’d give him any raw material, plumbing, and heating he needed, and Rosin could just pay him back later. Rosin never had to take him up on that offer, but he was moved by the supportiveness of the community.