Florence Griswold Museum

Sunset Over the Marsh (c 1890s)
Oil on canvas
Allen B. Talcott
Florence Griswold Museum

On Saturday April 28, 2007 I visited the Florence Griswold Museum.
With the student discount I was charged $7.oo to get in. If you are planning on visiting this museum, be advised to talk to the front desk about taking photographs. In my case they told me that they usually have a no photography policy, but as I explained my project they agreed to allow me access as long as I had a guide. The staff is friendly and very knowledgeable. Of all the museums I have visited so far, this one was by far the smallest.

Although we are rapidly approaching the end of this class, I am excited to say that my museum adventures will not. As a graduation gift, my wife and I are headed to Amsterdam, Belfast, and Paris. While there I will be visiting many sites including the Vincent Van Gogh Museum and Louvre Museum. I must say thank you to Jerry and all of my classmates for making this a good experience. From reading all of your blogs I see that I am not the only one who had a good time. If I hadn’t taken this class it is very likely that I may have never visited the museums I dis. I hate to admit it, but I was not aware of most of them and never would have guessed the size and quality of the local collections.

I chose Sunset Over the Marsh (see above) to write on. It was painted by Allen B. Talcott sometime in the 1890s. My eye was captured by the way this artist captured this breathtaking sunset. The colors are as true to life as I have seen in a painting, it is almost as good as a photograph. For me this works well as a focal point. As soon as I saw it I liked it and as I examined it I liked it even more. Between the detail used on the sun, or the reflection in the water (see below) Talcott certainly has captured this scene well.

This is the type of painting I would display in my home. The Florence Griswold Museum celebrates Connecticut. According to its website, “The artists who congregated at the Griswold House were among the most successful and cosmopolitan painters of their day. Henry Ward Ranger, Childe Hassam, and Willard Metcalf were just a few of the artists who found Old Lyme to be the perfect site to paint and relax because of its abundance of scenery for subject material, the camaraderie of fellow artists, and the hospitality of "Miss Florence" Griswold. Exposure to each other's paintings in Old Lyme informed their subsequent works by motivating them to experiment with new color palettes and techniques. Grouping works by Walter Griffin, Willard Metcalf, and Childe Hassam helps explain the influences these artists had on one another. Griffin's hard-point pastel drawings, such as Old Lyme, Connecticut (1907), affirm his stylistic affinity with his friend, Childe Hassam. Already an accomplished artist and teacher, Griffin experienced a breakthrough in Old Lyme, where contact with Hassam and Willard Metcalf inspired him to look at the landscape with fresh eyes. "The drawings inspired by this artistic exchange were among the most acclaimed works of Griffin's career," remarks Kurtz Lansing. Working outdoors, Griffin composed nearly pointillist pastels characterized by mesmerizing, rhythmic lines. Perhaps inspired by Griffin, Metcalf undertook a series of plein air sketches in pastel, despite his stated dislike of the medium. Metcalf's Lyme Hillside (1906) demonstrates that the artist embraced pastels with great success.” (http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/7aa/7aa730.htm)
The site says this about Sunset Over the Marsh, “The marshland over which Talcott's glorious sun sets may be in France, where he studied in the 1890s, or in his native Connecticut. This landscape's luminosity echoes the glowing quality found in works by fellow Tonalist painter Henry Ward Ranger, whom Talcott joined in Old Lyme in 1901. Comparison of this canvas with May Moon, the other Talcott painting in this gallery, reveals how quickly the artist would open himself to a light-infused plein air approach and textured brushwork once in Old Lyme. As his friends observed in his obituary after his death at only forty-one, his poetic sensibilities were not limited to capturing solitude in canvases like Sunset Over the Marsh, but also included reciting Robert Browning or Rudyard Kipling while painting outdoors.”

I went to askart.com to find out more about Allen B. Talcott, they say his style was “Impressionism before 1940”. He painted a variety of things from figures, floral art, human activity, landscapes, to still life. He studied in Paris before 1900, some of his teachers were Benjamin Jean-Joseph Constant, Jean Leon Gerome, and Jean Paul Laurens. I went to Virtualology.com to lean more about American Impressionists before 1900. They write” Unlike the traits associated with Academic artists, Impressionists rejected the idea of total devotion to imaginary subjects and the tedious and meticulous techniques. Instead, they opted for a style in which they could use rapid brushstrokes with a palette of vivid, moving colors.To the many young American artists whom were studying in Paris this new "radical" style of painting was revolting. J. Alden Weir (1852-1919) who, would later convert to Impressionism, in a letter to his parents described these paintings to be worse than a chamber of horrors! However, for those American painters who were inspired by Impressionism and would subscribe to its theory and practice would find their careers to be both pleasing and profitable. By the early 1890's, Impressionism had taken firm root in America and as it began to branch outward it would become a recognized valid artistic style. As the Impressionism movement gained momentum new opportunities presented themselves for the many in-demand artists. Some would find themselves in positions of teacher in the new art schools while others, like William Merrit Chase would conduct summer classes for many years to follow. While most American Impressionists preferred to leave behind the hectic pressures of their urban lives, some artists like Childe Hassam (1859-1935) were captivated by the continuous array of activities and motion which reflected prominently in their finished paintings. For those Impressionists who needed to escape from the congested and chaotic city life, they were afforded the opportunity to spend time with their colleagues in artist colonies which were secluded and surrounded by the serenity of nature. Others, like Charles H. Davis, who valued the benefit of solitude would spend his time painting in Mystic, along the Connecticut shore. Although deeply devoted to outdoor painting where they were able capture the effects of natural light and movement over a period of time, American Impressionists never totally abandoned their studio habits. Mary Cassatt, (1845-1926) for instance was inspired by the activities of people and to the domestic life to which they were committed. Many of her paintings, created in her studio, show women and children relaxing in a garden of tranquility or show them engaged in a domestic chore with in interiors that emit a sense of peace and harmony.”
Although Sunset Over the Marsh was my favorite see below for some other paintings from this school of painting that caught my eye.

Isles of Shoals,Childe Hassam(c1906)
Oil on canvas


Ten Pound Island, Childe Hassam (c1896-99)
Oil on canvas


Asparagus Bed and Twin Poplars, Walter Griffin (c 1911)
Oil on canvas

New Britain Museum of American Art

Spring Tapestry (c 1930)
Oil on canvas
Ernest Lawson
New Britain Museum of American Art

On Wednesday April 18, 2007 I visited the New Britain Museum of American Art.
The museum cost under $10 to get in. While visiting the museum, I would advise getting a bite to eat in the café, the food is really good. The museum is undergoing some renovations, so some of the areas are not open. Trolling through the rooms I thought that the people responsible for the placement of the paintings did a good job matching the pieces to compliment each other. The museum has pieces that span America’s history. There is a good mix of old and new. Throughout the museum, there are several benches which all have their own unique styles; they are pieces of art on their own.

The piece that really struck me was Spring Tapestry by Ernest Lawson. The point of view is standing on a high point over looking a riverside town. Even though the scene is peaceful, the painting is created in a chaotic way with the use of color and technique.
(see below).

Lawson named many of his works after the seasons and many show a scene similar to this one. This painting is similar to his work Shadows, Spuyten Duyvil Hill shown in the Metropolitan museum of art. Ernest Lawson is also displayed in the Wadsworth.
Ernest Lawson was an American Impressionist. Wikipedia tells us “From the 1890s through the 1910s, American impressionism flourished in art colonies—loosely affiliated groups of artists who lived and worked together and shared a common aesthetic vision. Art colonies tended to form in small towns that provided affordable living, abundant scenery for painting, and relatively easy access to large cities where artists could sell their work. Some of the most important American impressionist artists gathered at Cos Cob and Old Lyme, Connecticut, both on Long Island Sound; New Hope, Pennsylvania, on the Delaware River; and Brown County, Indiana. American impressionist artists also thrived in California at Carmel and Laguna Beach; in New York on eastern Long Island at Shinnecock, largely due to the influence of William Merritt Chase; and in Boston where Edmund Charles Tarbell and Frank Weston Benson became important practitioners of the impressionist style.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Impressionism)
What initially drew me to this painting was Lawson’s use of color. The painting consists of vivid greens, oranges, yellows, and whites. (see below)

I found the following paragraph on http://www.nbmaa.org/Gallery_htmls/lawson.html “Spring Tapestry is one of Ernest Lawson's most masterful summations of his singular landscape painting style. A second generation Impressionist, Lawson's practice of "stitching" short, rapid strokes of color into a tapestry-like whole recalls the works of Willard L. Metcalf, Twachtman, and Weir. However, his affinity with other members of The Eight is revealed not only in his general preference for urban scenery but also in his insistence, underlying the flurry of broken brushwork, on the concreteness of nature and the continuing human presence within it. This tension between the gentle Impressionist poetry of spring and the bustle of urban life makes up a large part of Lawson's unique vision as a landscape painter.”
Overall I had a good time on my visit to the New Britain Museum of American Art. It is small enough where you can take your time looking at the variety of styles offered. The ranges of dates run from colonial times to present, there is something for every style. Below are some of the other pieces that caught my eye.

Untitled(Yellow #2),George Chaplin(c1931)
Oil on canvas


Old House, Easthampton, Long Island, Frederick Childe Hassam (c1919)
Oil on canvas


The Birdcage, Frederick Carl Frieseke (c 1910)
Oil on canvas

Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford Assignment 3

The Old Man and Death (c 1773)
Oil on canvas
Joseph Wright of Derby
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford

On Saturday, April 14 I visited the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford. The museum is easy to get to, (right off 91) and offers a gated parking lot. In order to get permission to photograph in the museum, I had to fill out a form and was given a photography pass. The museum charges to get in so sure to tell the ticket attendant that you are a student and on a project, this saves you $5 dollars off the $10 fee. Once inside I was impressed the vast collection of paintings, furniture, recreated rooms of colonial houses, sculptures, and there is even an Egyptian mummy on display.

As I mentioned in my first post, I am in the process of renovating my house. I am always looking for ideas of unique things to do. I enjoyed looking at the recreation of the colonial era room with a view of the back of a cabinet that showed the workmanship. The furniture on display showed a broad range of examples of American style. There were several grandfather clocks on display and a couple of them had inlay work that really impressed me. I have dabbled in that art and can appreciate the effort put in to the clocks.


As I wandered through the floors I came upon a picture that gained my attention (shown above). The piece was called The Old Man and Death and painted by Joseph Wright in 1773. It shows a skeleton approaching a fearful aged man. It takes place at the footing of an ancient looking building on a swamp or lake. According to the information I found at the website (source 1) listed below, this piece was first shown at the Society of Artists 1n 1774. It has “frequently been cited as an example of the new taste for “Gothick” subjects in the 1770’s”. This represented a shift from “traditional classical and Christian themes of historical paintings” to “new narrative subjects”. This scene is said to be from an 18th century Aesop text called A Feeble Old Man. The story is about a man whop was tired from carrying sticks, wished for death to save him from the chore. When his request was answered and death comes, he is terrified.

According to information found at another website (source 2), Joseph Wright “was an English landscape and portrait painter — he has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the industrial revolution.” “He was a frequent contributor to the exhibitions of the Society of Artists, and to those of the Royal Academy, of which he was elected an associate in 1781 and a full member in 1784. He, however, declined the latter honour on account of a slight which he believed that he had received, and severed his official connection with the Academy, though he continued to contribute to the exhibitions from 1783 until 1794.”


What drew me to this painting was the skeleton (shown above). It was an unusual sight in a museum full of portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. It stood out as if it didn’t belong in a painting that was so masterfully painted. Look at the detail in the trees and the water. Wright sucessfully captures the look of terror in the “old man” (see below).


The location Wright chose for the scene also helps to portray mortality. The ruins, remind the viewer that our time here is temporary, they were built by people who apparently haven’t been around for some time. They are abandonedand covered with vegetation (see below).


Although I did not realize it until I did further research, I have been struck by one of Wrights works before, in the National Gallery in London I viewed Wrights work An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (c1768) (shown below). As soon as I saw it I instantly recognized the painting.

It stuck with me because I liked the use of shadow and darkness in contrast to the bright faces of the subjects.

I saw many other painting I liked. Here are a few:

Two Girls with Oleander, Gustav Klimt (c1890-1892)
Oil on canvas

I like the overall brightness of the piece and the detail shown on the girls faces, flowers, and the background.

Avenue de Clincy, Louis Anquetin (c1887)
oil on paper laid on canvas

I like the contrast between blue and orange here, I also like the subject.

Sunset on the Hills of Jean-de-Paris, Pierre-Etienne-Theodore Rousseau (c1864)
Oil on canvas

I like the use of the color orange used here, the artist has captured a beautiful sunset here.


The Shore at Trouville; Sunset Effect, Gustave Courbet (c1866)
Oil on canvas
Here are many elements I like here. I like the colors used, the subject, and the technique used.




Source 1 : http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0075-4390(196201%2F06)25%3A1%2F2%3C135%3ASOTPBJ%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5
Source 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Wright_of_Derby

Yale Center for British Art / Assignment # 2

The Day’s Sport (c 1826)
Oil on canvas
James Ward
Yale Center for British Art

On Friday April 6 I visited the Yale Center for British Art. It is located directly across the street from the Yale Art Gallery (a fact that was lost on me until my second visit to Chapel Street). I really enjoyed the layout of the building and the staff was friendly and helpful. The day I went the third floor was closed so my visit was limited to the second and fourth. There are many portraits on display, and although portraits are not my favorite subject, I enjoyed the lifelike features the paintings displayed. Very often the paintings displayed details that only the most skilled painters can recreate.

According to its website (http://ycba.yale.edu/information/index.html), “the Yale Center for British Art houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom”. As I wandered through the Yale Center for British Art I was reminded of the paintings I saw in the Holburne Museum of Art in Bath, England. The two are very similar.

The painting I chose to write on was called The Day’s Sport by James Ward. (Please forgive the blurriness of the photos; I am still trying to figure out this camera and how to take clear pictures with the flash off). The initial thing that drew me to this painting is the way the sky meets the trees. The view offered here is breathtaking. It is a place I would like to visit. (See below)

The thing that led me to choose this piece is the detail of the snow covered branched. This certainly works to enhance the painting. The entire painting is well crafted, but the skill shown in the way the trees are done elevates this painting from ordinary to extraordinary. (See below)

The subject is standard in this painting (I could not locate additional info on this via the internet), a gentleman out on a hunt on a cold winter day. For me the subject (the people and the game) are not what makes this painting work, it is the scenery shown around it. The blue sky with a bright orange sun sits in perfect contrast with the brown branches covered in bright white snow. The branches look alive, much like when the morning sun hits ice covered branches.
As I first look at this work, my eyes go to the sky. Then I see the snow covered trees. My eyes then take me to the man holding the dead rabbit. From here my eyes move to the left first focusing on the two dogs and then on the man with the gun. At this point I go to the right, through the snow to the goose laying there. I scan upward to the two children and then to the woods. Finally my eyes go left again back where I started.
Although the scene takes place on a winter day, the painting is warm in color. The orange in the sun, the red found on the subjects clothing, the reds and browns found in the woods. The painting does not portray a sterile scene usually associated with the winter, instead thee is much life here in the trees, the people, the dogs, and even the fallen game.
According to his bio, (link provided at end), James Ward was “the most important animal painter of his generation”. He was born in 1769 and died in 1859 so The Day’s Sport was painted by a mature man. This was painted shortly after Ward suffered the loss of his wife and daughter. That might explain the sense of family this painting hints at with the two young children admiring the man’s (dad’s?) spoils. It also may explain why the viewers eye (at least mine) is drawn to the sky (heavens) first. Whatever it is this painting works for me. It is pleasing to look at and has a good contrast with color and darkness.

As I strolled through the rooms here are some other pieces that caught my eye:

Dedham Lock, John Constable (c 1819-1820)
oil on canvas laid on wood

Schoolgirls, Haverstock Hill, George Clausen (c1889)
oil on canvas

The Fruit Stall, King’s Cross, Charles Ginner (c 1914)
oil on canvas



Bio for James Ward: (http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=581&page=1&sole=y&collab=y&attr=y&sort=default&tabview=bio)

Week 1 (3/19-3/26) Preparation
Week 2 (4/2) Yale University Art Gallery
Week 3 (4/9) Yale Center for Briish Art
Week 4 (4/16) Wadsworth Antheneum
Week 5 (4/23) Metropolitan Museum of Art
Week 6 (4/30) The Bruce Museum
Week 7 (5/7) New Britian Museum of American Art
Week 8 (5/12) Final week