The art colonies of New England

Magazine Antiques, April, 1999 by Thomas Andrew Denenberg, Tracie Felker

4 The massive timbers that supported the steeple were brought down the Connecticut River from Vermont (Landmarks of Old Lyme, Connecticut: Historic Buildings and Monuments, Together with a Short Record of the Town Since 1635 A.D. [Ladies Library Association of Old Lyme, Old Lyme, Connecticut, 1952], pp. 3-4).

5 Letter from Hassam to Florence Griswold, July 30, 1907, quoted in Jeffrey W. Andersen, "The Art Colony at Old Lyme," in Connecticut and American Impressionism (William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, 1980), p. 132.

6 Beginning in 1902 the artists of Old Lyme held an exhibition of their work at the end of each summer season to benefit the local library. In addition to paintings, the first exhibition included a number of "Antiques and Curios" such as "Old Manuscripts, Silver, China, Laces, Jewelry, Miniatures, etc." loaned by the residents of Old Lyme (Connecticut and American Impressionism, p. 122). These artifacts were excluded thereafter as the number of paintings in the exhibition increased.

7 Among the Old Lyme artists who shared Griswold's passion for New England antiques were Clark Voorhees (1871-1933), who collected clocks, and George Brainerd Burr (1876-1939), who collected early American looking glasses (Jeffrey W. Andersen, "A Season in Lyme: Life Among the Artists," in En Plein Air: The Art Colonies at East Hampton and Old Lyme, 1880-1930 [Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut, and Guild Hall Museum of East Hampton, East Hampton, New York, 1989], p. 29).

8 Iron railroad bridges began to replace wooden ones in the 1830s. By the early twentieth century they were a common sight along the East Coast (see H. Barbara Weinberg, Doreen Bolger, and David Park Curry, American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915 [Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994], p. 83).

9 Diane Pietrucha Fischer, Edward F. Rook, 1870-1960: American Impressionist (Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut, 1987). Henry Ward Ranger's painting of this site, Bradbury's Mill Pond, No. 2 of 1903 (National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.), shows only the pond and a dimly lit forest.

10 Susan H. Ely and Elizabeth B. Plimpton, The Lieutenant River (Lyme Historical Society, Old Lyme, Connecticut, 1991), p. 52.

11 This is particularly evident when one compares works by impressionist artists in nearby Cos Cob, who painted several of the commercial buildings in that town. For a thorough discussion of the architectural paintings of Cos Cob, see Susan G. Larkin, '"A Regular Rendezvous for Impressionists': The Cos Cob Art Colony, 1882-1920" (Ph.D. dissertation, City University of New York, New York, 1996), pp. 166-182.

12 Sargent's Handbook Series, A Handbook of New England (Porter E. Sargent, Boston, 1917), p. 706.

13 Ibid., p. 707.

14 Lewiston [Maine] Journal, August 7, 1937, quoted in Earth, Sea and Sky: Charles H. Woodbury, Artist and Teacher, 1864-1940, ed. Joan Loria and Warren A. Seamans (MIT Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1988), p. 34.