The Florence Griswold Museum is an Art Museum at 96 Lyme Street in
Old Lyme
Old Lyme is a coastal town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The main street of the town, Lyme Street, is a historic district with several homes once owned by sea captains. Lyme Academy of Fine Arts is located in Old Lyme and the ...
,
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...
centered on the home of
Florence Griswold
Florence Ann Griswold (December 25, 1850 – December 6, 1937) was a resident of Old Lyme, Connecticut, United States who became the nucleus of the " Old Lyme Art Colony" in the early 20th century. Her home has since been made into the Florenc ...
(1850–1937), which was the center of the
Old Lyme Art Colony, a main nexus of
American Impressionism
American Impressionism was a style of painting related to European Impressionism and practiced by American artists in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. The style is characterized by loose ...
. The Museum is noted for its collection of American Impressionist paintings. The house was designated a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1993. The site encompasses 12-acres of historic buildings, grounds, gardens, and walking trails.
Museum
The Museum's Robert and Nancy Krieble Gallery, featuring of exhibit space and sweeping views of the
Lieutenant River
The Lieutenant River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tidal river located in Old Lyme, Connecticut. It joins the Connecticut River in the estuary, jus ...
, designed by
Centerbrook Architects, opened in 2002.
In 2001, the Museum acquired the corporate collection of the
Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, once the world's largest insurer against equipment breakdown.
The collection included 157 oil paintings, 31 works on paper and 2 works of sculpture, all Connecticut-related.
Rebekah Beaulieu, Ph.D., became Director of the Museum in February 2018, succeeding Jeff Andersen, who led the Museum for 41 years. Beaulieu holds a bachelor's degree in American Studies from George Washington University, a Master's in Art History and Museum Studies from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a Master's in Arts Administration from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in American and New England Studies from Boston University.
Collection highlights:
*
Milton Avery
Milton Clark Avery (March 7, 1885 – January 3, 1965Haskell, B. (2003). "Avery, Milton". Grove Art Online.) was an American modern painter. Born in Altmar, New York, he moved to Connecticut in 1898 and later to New York City. He was the husband ...
, ''East Hartford Meadow'', 1922
*
Frederic Church
Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, ...
, ''The Charter Oak at Hartford'', 1946
*
Childe Hassam
Frederick Childe Hassam (; October 17, 1859 – August 27, 1935) was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressioni ...
, ''Summer Evening'' (''A Woman at the Window''), 1886
*
David Johnson, ''View of Greenwich, Connecticut'', 1878
*
John F. Kensett
John Frederick Kensett (March 22, 1816 – December 14, 1872) was an American
landscape painter and engraver born in Cheshire, Connecticut. He was a member of the second generation of the Hudson River School of artists. Kensett's signature works ...
, ''Shore of Darien, Connecticut'', 1872
*
Harlan Page (painter), ''Portrait of a Man'', 1815
*
Edward Francis Rook
Edward Francis Rook (September 21, 1870 New York City – October 25, 1960 Old Lyme, Connecticut) was an American Impressionism, American Impressionist landscape and marine painter, and a member of the Old Lyme art colony, art colony at Old L ...
, ''Laurel'', 1905-10
* Gurdon Trumbull, ''Black Bass'', 1872
*
John Ferguson Weir, ''East Rock, New Haven'', 1901
*
Edwin White, ''The Fisher Boy'', 1840
*
Matilda Browne, ''Peonies'', ca. 1907
*
Bessie Potter Vonnoh
Bessie Potter Vonnoh (August 17, 1872 – March 8, 1955) was an American sculptor best known for her small bronzes, mostly of domestic scenes, and for her garden fountains. Her stated artistic objective, as she told an interviewer in 1925, was to ...
, ''Jessie Wilson,'' 1912–13
Works by
Emil Carlsen
Soren Emil Carlsen (October 19, 1853 – January 2, 1932, New York City, U.S.) was an American Impressionist painter who emigrated to the United States from Denmark. He became known for his still lifes. Later in his career, Carlsen expanded his ...
,
Charles Ebert,
Bruce Crane and
Willard Metcalf.
File:Summer Evening Frederick Childe Hassam 1886.jpeg, ''Summer Evening'', oil on canvas, Childe Hassam, 1886
File:John Ferguson Weir - East Rock, New Haven (c.1901).jpg, ''East Rock, New Haven'', oil on canvas, John Ferguson Weir, 1901
File:Willard Leroy Metcalf - Thawing Brook (1911).jpg, ''Thawing Brook'', oil on canvas, Williard Metcalf, 1911
File:Charter Oak FEChurch.jpeg, ''The Charter Oak at Hartford'', oil on canvas, Frederic Church, 1946
Florence Griswold House
The Florence Griswold House in
Old Lyme, Connecticut
Old Lyme is a coastal town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The main street of the town, Lyme Street, is a historic district with several homes once owned by sea captains. Lyme Academy of Fine Arts is located in Old Lyme and the ...
was a boardinghouse run by
Florence Griswold
Florence Ann Griswold (December 25, 1850 – December 6, 1937) was a resident of Old Lyme, Connecticut, United States who became the nucleus of the " Old Lyme Art Colony" in the early 20th century. Her home has since been made into the Florenc ...
, where
American Impressionist artists lived and painted—often directly on the walls and doors of the house. The building is now part of the campus of the Florence Griswold Museum.
Leading artists of the
Old Lyme Art Colony who stayed at the boardinghouse were
Henry Ward Ranger
Henry Ward Ranger (January 29, 1858 – November 7, 1916) was an American artist. Born in western New York State, he was a prominent landscape and marine painter, an important Tonalist, and the leader of the Old Lyme Art Colony. Ranger became a ...
,
Edward Charles Volkert
Edward Charles Volkert (1871–1935) was an American Impressionist artist best known for his colorful and richly painted impressionist landscapes. His trademark subject was that of cattle and plowmen. His style is noted for its impressionist u ...
,
Childe Hassam
Frederick Childe Hassam (; October 17, 1859 – August 27, 1935) was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressioni ...
, and
Willard Metcalf. U.S. President
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
and his family dined with "Miss Florence" and the artists in the house.
[Web page titled "Florence Griswold House" at the Florence Griswold Museum Web site]
accessed January 8, 2007
Old Lyme resident
Harry Hoffman helped to save Griswold's house through a fund-raising campaign so that it could be converted into a Museum.
Appearance and Layout
''I saw a charming house that appeared like a Roman temple among the trees. Admiringly, I beheld the broad steps surmounted by four huge ionic columns that towered to the roof and formed a magnificent adornment to the mansion's front, the handsome old doorway of which stood hospitably open.'' — Arthur Heming
Arthur Henry Howard Heming (January 17, 1870 – October 30, 1940) was a Canadian painter and novelist known as the "chronicler of the North" for his paintings, sketches, essays and books about Canada's North.
Career as an artist
Born in Pari ...
, artist of the Lyme Art Colony[
]
The entire first floor has been furnished to reflect its appearance in about
1910
Events
January
* January 13 – The first public radio broadcast takes place; live performances of the operas '' Cavalleria rusticana'' and ''Pagliacci'' are sent out over the airwaves, from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York C ...
, the height of its years as an artists' boardinghouse.
[ Visitors enter through a wide center hall, where an "informal gallery" displays paintings on grass cloth walls. The hall also contains Colonial and Empire furniture. Two bedrooms are off the hallway — Miss Florence's bedroom and a guest artist's bedroom.
A parlor on the first floor has artists' brushes on the mantel and the extravagant gold harp Robert Griswold brought back for his daughter from England. In that room the artist-boarders would present various types of entertainment for each other.] There is a formal dining room on the first floor, and a large covered porch marks the entrance.
The second floor is exhibition space in five galleries with rotating selections from the permanent collection, as well as new acquisitions.
Samuel Belcher, architect of the Old Lyme Congregational Church
The Old Lyme Congregational Church is located in Old Lyme, Connecticut. The church is noted as a favorite subject of Old Lyme Art Colony painters. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.
History
The first Meeting House was built ...
, designed the late Georgian-style house for William Noyes. It was built in 1817.
The house was declared a National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1993. In July 2007 the building reopened after a 14-month restoration project.
The Painted Panels
The house's dining room, where artists would gather to debate topics of the day, became a showcase for painted wall and door panels created by the artist-boarders. The artists who painted on the house's doors and walls were probably following a tradition imported from hostelries in the French art colonies at Barbizon
Barbizon () is a commune (town) in the Seine-et-Marne department in north-central France. It is located near the Fontainebleau Forest.
Demographics
The inhabitants are called ''Barbizonais''.
Art history
The Barbizon school of painters is nam ...
, , and Pont-Aven
Pont-Aven (, Breton: 'River Bridge') is a commune in the Finistère department in the Brittany region in Northwestern France. In 2019, it had a population of 2,821.
Demographics
Inhabitants of Pont-Aven are called ''Pontavenistes'' in French ...
, where many of them had visited and stayed on their own travels abroad. A total of 41 painted panels are in the downstairs rooms.
Artists who contributed painted panels and painted doors on the first floor of the house include Childe Hassam
Frederick Childe Hassam (; October 17, 1859 – August 27, 1935) was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressioni ...
, Willard Metcalf, Henry Rankin Poore
Henry Rankin Poore (1859–1940), often Henry R. Poore, was an American painter and illustrator, known for incorporating human and animal figures into his landscape and genre paintings. He was also a lecturer and critic, and a prolific author on ...
, Everett Warner
Everett Longley Warner (July 16, 1877 – October 20, 1963) was an American Impressionist painter and printmaker, as well as a leading contributor to US Navy camouflage during both World Wars.
Early years
Warner was born in the small town of Vi ...
, Allen Butler Talcott
Allen Butler Talcott (April 8, 1867 – June 1, 1908) was an American landscape painter. After studying art in Paris for three years at Académie Julian, he returned to the United States, becoming one of the first members of the Old Lyme ...
, William Chadwick, William Henry Howe, Matilda Browne, Harry Hoffman, Arthur Heming
Arthur Henry Howard Heming (January 17, 1870 – October 30, 1940) was a Canadian painter and novelist known as the "chronicler of the North" for his paintings, sketches, essays and books about Canada's North.
Career as an artist
Born in Pari ...
, Chauncey Foster Ryder, Clark Voorhees
Clark Greenwood Voorhees (1871 – 1933) was an American Impressionist and Tonalist landscape painter and one of the founders of the Old Lyme Art Colony.
Biography
The son of a stockbroker, Voorhees was born on May 29, 1871, in New York Cit ...
, Carleton Wiggins, and Bruce Crane, among others. Matilda Browne was the only female artist invited to contribute a panel and was given a place of honor: Miss Florence's own bedroom door.
Life at the Lyme Art Colony
Miss Florence's bedroom was her only private space in the house and is furnished today with memories of her life: books, art, gifts, and letters from many of the artists who became her lifelong friends. The entire rest of the first floor and the two upstairs floors of the house were taken up by her artist-boarders (and several resident cats.)
Most of the artists traveled by train from New York or Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
along the Connecticut shore Coastal Connecticut, often called the Connecticut Shore or the Connecticut Shoreline, comprises all of Connecticut's southern border along Long Island Sound, from Greenwich in the west to Stonington in the east, as well as the tidal portions of th ...
to Miss Florence's. During the day, artists would paint ''en plein air
''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors.
This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...
'' on the grounds by the Lieutenant River, in the apple orchard, or other nearby bucolic landscapes. Often cattle and other wildlife were brought in as subjects from local farms for the artists to paint from life. In the evenings, after boisterous dinners held in the dining room or on the side porch when indoor air became too stuffy, groups retired to the parlor for music, games, and entertainment. In their invented "Wiggle Game," an artist would draw a small number of lines (or "wiggles") on a piece of paper to be completed by a fellow artist into a finished drawing.
Childe Hassam famously called a visit to Old Lyme and Miss Florence's "an excursion to Bohemia," and "just the place for high-thinking and low-living." The artists enjoyed pageants, parades, visits to nearby beaches, canoeing, swimming, and all manner of countryside pursuits on their visits from nearby cities where most resided. Some so enjoyed life in Old Lyme they later relocated permanently or purchased summer residences in the area.
Gardens and Grounds
Historic Gardens
The 12-acre site is home to historic gardens tended and maintained by staff and volunteers, populated with historic flowers, herbs, vegetables, and plants. Behind the house there were four distinct gardens: one for herbs and produce such as strawberries, lettuce
Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, ...
, pea
The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...
s, corn, and potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
es; one for rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
s; and two for flowers, which Miss Florence also sold to make ends meet.
The Museum is a member of Connecticut's Historic Gardens, an organization which celebrates the diversity of gardens at distinctive historic homes throughout the state of Connecticut.
Robert F. Schumann Artists' Trail
In July 2019, the Museum opened the Robert F. Schumann Artists' Trail, a series of walking paths, landscaping features, and native plantings around the historic site. The four distinct walks (the river, hedgerow, woodland, and garden) encompass 0.5 miles in length and give modern day visitors an understanding of why artists were drawn to paint ''en plein air
''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors.
This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...
'' on the landscape. Markers designate sites of historic importance, such as the location of Childe Hassam
Frederick Childe Hassam (; October 17, 1859 – August 27, 1935) was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressioni ...
's studio in the orchard. Funding from the Robert F. Schumann Foundation supported the project. Stephen Stimson Associates Landscape Architects of Cambridge, MA
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...
designed and implemented the Artists' Trail and it received an Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects
The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is a professional association for landscape architects in the United States. The ASLA's mission is to advance landscape architecture through advocacy, communication, education, and fellowship ...
.
Chadwick Studio
American Impressionist William Chadwick (1879-1962) was an artist of the Lyme Art Colony and Old Lyme resident. From about 1920 until his death in 1962, the structure now on Museum Campus served as his artist's studio. This building is open for visitors the first Saturday in April through December.
See also
*List of National Historic Landmarks in Connecticut
This article describes National Historic Landmarks in the United States state of Connecticut. These include the most highly recognized historic sites in Connecticut that are officially designated and/or funded and operated by the U.S. Federal Go ...
*
References
External links
Florence Griswold Museum Web page
{{authority control
Old Lyme, Connecticut
Houses completed in 1817
National Historic Landmarks in Connecticut
Historic house museums in Connecticut
Museums in New London County, Connecticut
Art museums and galleries in Connecticut
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
Museums of American art
Georgian architecture in Connecticut
National Register of Historic Places in New London County, Connecticut
Houses in New London County, Connecticut