Connecticut
November 2005
Please view our Connecticut checklist at the end of the article...
With autumn's crimson leaves fallen and the foliage-seekers gone, collectors on a circuitous art-centric tour of Connecticut find pristine country roads to drive and art aplenty to enjoy. Art in Connecticut reflects both the Yankee spirit of independence (Colonel John Trumbull, an aide to George Washington during the American Revolution, painted great people and grand events) and its bucolic landscape (American Impressionism made its debut in Cos Cob in the 1890s).
From the Connecticut coast (Greenwich to New London) to its inland communities (Ridgefield and Woodbury), the state is abundant with historic house museums, fine-art galleries and superb antiques dealers. Museum-rich cities (Hartford, New Haven and New Britain) display world-class collections. And best yet: Most venues are about an hour's drive from one another and some can be reached by train from New York or Boston.
Greenwich, (I-95, exit 3) just 30 miles northeast of Manhattan on Connecticut's Gold Coast (see Traveling Collector, September 2003), is a good starting point with art galleries galore on Greenwich Avenue and antiques dealers mostly on East and West Putnam Avenue. One annual event, the Greenwich Spring Show and Sale, is held the first weekend in March. The Bruce Museum of Arts and Science is one of nine sites on the Connecticut Impressionist Art Trail (www.arttrail.org), and along with an impressive collection that includes sculpture by Auguste Rodin, Hiram Powers, Frederick MacMonnies and George Segal, there's representation from the Cos Cob Art Colony with plein-air paintings by Childe Hassam, Emil Carlsen and Leonard and Mina Fonda Ochtman. “Greenwich probably has the highest concentration of collectors of art of any township of 60,000 in the United States,” says Peter Sutton, executive director of the Bruce Museum. “We often can rely on the wonderful resources of our private collectors, and this year we have done five of the 15 shows from our private collections.” Until January 8, the exhibit is “American Impressionism: The Beauty of Work,” with paintings by Hassam, William Merritt Chase, Daniel Garber, Willard Metcalf, Theodore Robinson, John Singer Sargent, Robert Spencer and J. Alden Weir. From February 4 to March 19, the exhibit features “Landscapes from the Bruce Museum Collection.”
The Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich preserves the Bush-Holley Historic Site, circa 1730. This is the home of the Cos Cob Art Colony, Connecticut's first art colony (I-95, exit 4). The house, with a number of artworks by leading American Impressionists, is set up as it was when Hassam and John Henry Twachtman were teachers there, and its restored grounds and gardens recreate the landscape they so appreciated.
Julian (aka J.) Alden Weir acquired Weir Farm, his summer home in Branchville, in 1882 and painted there for 37 years; it's considered the best-preserved landscape associated with American Impressionism. Weir, Twachtman, Hassam, Robinson and Metcalf (the five undisputed masters of American Impressionism), along with Albert Pinkham Ryder and John Singer Sargent, did some of their best work here.
Visitors flock to tour the studios and to take in the historic and aesthetic atmosphere of the quiet 153-acre landscape. (From Greenwich, take the tree-lined Merritt Parkway to Rte. 7 north to Branchville/Ridgefield). Ridgefield is also home to the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, which delights fans of cutting-edge artwork. Until March 12, the ever-changing exhibits showcase the 2005 Aldrich Emerging Artist Award Recipient. The Aldrich, Real ArtWays (in Hartford) and ArtSpace (in New Haven) are a trio of contemporary venues.
Collectors eager to purchase some of the country's finest 18th- and 19th-century American antiques, particularly American Federal pieces, rank Woodbury's Route 6 (aka Main Street) as a primary destination. From Ridgefield, back roads wind along Route 202 near where the Mayflower Inn, on a former estate in Washington, has been resurrected in antiques-filled splendor as an oasis for lunch or overnight. (Rte. 47 through Washington leads to Rte. 6 in Woodbury; so does I-84 to exit 15.)
Woodbury, “The Antiques Capital of Connecticut” (see Traveling Collector, January 2004), offers both quality and quantity-more than 40-of antiques and art dealers; plus, it's a source for fine English-made reproductions. Visiting collectors appreciate dining and lodging at the family-owned and operated Longwood with its eclectic mix of antiques-including a fine hand-colored etching from the 18th century-vintage finds and reproductions. This country inn was built in 1789 as a residence at the Ben Franklin Mile Marker on the well-traveled route from Boston to Washington.
For Hartford, take Route 6 south to I-84, exit 15 and drive eastward. En route, the Mattatuck Museum, in Waterbury (I-84, exit 21) is a showcase for Connecticut art from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, with works by John Trumbull, Frederic E. Church, Josef Albers and Alexander Calder.
The New Britain Museum of American Art (I-84, exit 35) celebrates its reopening in April 2006 with the return of the collection's masterworks, which have been on loan to other museums during its $26 million addition and renovation. The nation's art history, including American Impressionism, is represented, and artists include: Frank Benson, Thomas Hart Benton, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, John Singleton Copley, Frederic Church and Thomas Cole, Arthur Clifton Goodwin, Georgia O'Keeffe, Sol LeWitt, Richard Miller, Ernest Lawson, Maurice Prendergast and Guy Wiggins.
Lovers of French Impressionists are drawn to Hill-Stead (I-84, exit 39), a scenic 152-acre hilltop estate and former working farm in Farmington. It's a National Historic Landmark with masterpieces by Cassatt, Degas, Manet, Monet and Whistler. The 1901 Colonial Revival house offers tours of its 19 intact, antiques-filled period rooms decorated with Chinese porcelains and Japanese woodblock prints. In June, the 26th Annual Farmington Antiques Weekend at the Farmington Polo Club and Show Grounds hosts about 400 dealers in the largest antiques event in the state.
In Hartford (I-84 east, exit 48-B) the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is America's first, and still one of its most impressive, public art museums. Its American decorative arts collection excels in American furniture with pieces by Connecticut's best colonial cabinetmaker Eliphalet Chapin (1741-1807) and Colchester/Norwich-style furniture by Samuel Loomis (1748-1814). In addition to Old Masters (such as Caravaggio), 19th-century French and Impressionist paintings, modern masterpieces and contemporary art, the scope of its Hudson River School landscapes is world-renowned. Until December 31, “Dalí, Picasso and the Surrealist Vision” displays paintings by leading surrealists, including Ernst and Tanguy.
The Connecticut Historical Society Museum, less than two miles from the Wadsworth Atheneum, gathered important pieces of furnishings made during Connecticut's golden age of furniture production for “Connecticut Valley Furniture by Eliphalet Chapin and His Contemporaries, 1750-1800,” which is on view until January 15. A similarly named landmark reference book, Connecticut Valley Furniture: Eliphalet Chapin and His Contemporaries, 1750-1800, is being published by the museum (November 2005) and distributed by the University Press of New England. “One of the most exciting results of the exhibition for both collectors and scholars is that it provides a framework to trace specific Connecticut furniture to particular places at particular times,” says Susan Schoelwer, director of museum collections.
On the coast, Old Lyme (I-95, exit 70) is the best known of the American Impressionist art colonies in Connecticut. (From Hartford, take Route 9 to I-95 or from Putnam via I-395.) The Lyme Art Colony flourished in the early 1900s in Florence Griswold's boardinghouse where the group of plein-air painters-Hassam, Metcalf and Henry Ward Ranger, as well as Woodrow Wilson and his wife, the painter Ellen Axson Wilson-called what is now the Florence Griswold Museum the “Holy House.” While the original house is being restored (until summer 2006), the exhibit is on view in the Krieble Gallery until May 28. “The 'Holy House': Spirit of a Place” features the museum's newest and most important acquisition: “Autumn Landscape with Stream,” 1902, by Lewis Cohen. Originally this painting was a gift from the artist, who inscribed it: “To my friend Miss Florence Griswold.” Lyme Street, also in the historic district, is home to the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts and Lyme Art Association, plus some galleries and antiques stores.
New Haven (I-95, exit 47 west), the country's first planned city, was designed in 1638 with nine squares around a 16-acre town green as the center of the grid. It was originally graced with a house built in 1639 (now the Henry Whitfield State Museum) and since by buildings designed by modern masters: Marcel Breuer, Gordon Bunshaft, Philip Johnson, Louis I. Kahn, Paul Rudolph and Eero Saarinen. The city's major museums are just footsteps from the Green: The Yale University Art Gallery, the oldest university art gallery in the western hemisphere, was founded in 1832 with a purchase of Colonel John Trumbull paintings of the American Revolution. Today, among 185,000 works of art dating from ancient times to the present, there is a rare collection of American decorative arts and a substantial collection of American and European art with paintings by Manet, Monet, Picasso and van Gogh.
The Louis Kahn-designed Yale Center for British Art houses the largest collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. Donated by Paul Mellon (Yale 1929), the building houses rare books, a research library and displays of drawings, paintings and sculpture. New Haven is a small, modern metropolis with shops, a variety of great ethnic restaurants and stores filled with antiques (in the Westville section of the city). In June the 16-day International Festival of Arts and Ideas is a mostly free celebration featuring performing and visual artists from around the world. Each October, ArtSpace-an artist- and volunteer-run contemporary arts showcase-convenes its City-Wide Open Studio event during which more than 400 artists converge for the largest such happening on the East Coast.
Connecticut, with its artistic heritage and contemporary venues, definitely merits its lofty geographical position between the distinguished cultural centers of New York and Boston.
Irvina Lew frequently reports on collecting destinations for Art & Antiques.
CONNECTICUT CHECKLIST
(Area code 203 unless otherwise noted)
MUSEUMS
► The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
Ridgefield
www.aldrichart.org
438-4519
► Bruce Museum of Arts and Science
Greenwich
www.brucemuseum.org
869-0376
► Bush-Holley Historic Site
39 Strickland Road. Cos Cob (Greenwich)
www.hstg.org
869-6899
► Connecticut Historical Society Museum
Hartford
www.chs.org
(860) 236-5621
► Florence Griswold Museum
Old Lyme
www.flogris.org
(860) 434-5542
► Hill-Stead Museum
Farmington
www.hillstead.org
(860) 677-4787
► Lyman Allyn Art Museum
New London
www.lymanallyn.org
(860) 443-2545
► Mattatuck Museum
Waterbury
www.mattatuckmuseum.org
753-0381
► New Britain Museum of American Art
New Britain
www.nbmaa.org
(860) 229-0257
► Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Hartford
www.wadsworthatheneum.org
(860) 278-2670
► Weir Farm National Historic Site
Wilton
www.nps.gov/wefa
834-1896
► Yale University Art Gallery
New Haven
www.artgallery.yale.edu
432-0600
► Yale Center for British Art
New Haven
ycba.yale.edu
432-2800
ART GALLERIES & ANTIQUES SHOPS
► Allan Katz Americana
Woodbridge
American folk art.
393-9356
► B & D Johnson Antiques
Greenwich
Estate American and English antiques.
618-0009
► Black Pearl Antiques
Woodbury
Museum-quality American period furniture, American Impressionist art, Asian antiquities.
266-0299
► Butler Fine Art
New Canaan
19th- and 20th-century American paintings.
966-2274
► Cavalier Galleries Inc.
Greenwich
20th-century sculpture and paintings (also in Manhattan and Nantucket).
www.cavaliergalleries.com
869-3664
► Creative Arts Workshop Celebration of American Crafts
New Haven
Exhibits and sales of crafts.
www.creativeartsworkshop.org
562-4927
► David A. Schorsch American Antiques at Hitchcock House Antiques
Woodbury
18th-and 19th-century American folk art.
263-3131
► David Dunton
Woodbury
American Federal period.
www.daviddunton.com
263-5355
► Diane Birdsall Gallery
Old Lyme
Contemporary works by American landscape, figurative and textile artists.
(860) 434-3209
► Eve Stone Antiques
Woodbridge
American, English, German and Dutch metalware.
www.evestoneantiques.com
389-6665
► Fenn Gallery of Contemporary Art
Woodbury
Abstract and representational works.
www.fenngallery.com
263-3449
► Fine American Art Gallery
Old Lyme
Old Lyme Art Colony, The Hudson River School and 19th- and 20th-century American painting.
www.fineamericanart.com
(860) 434-3848
► G. Sergeant Antiques
Woodbury
English, Continental and American furnishings.
www.gsergeant.com
266-4177
► Gallerie Je Reviens
Westport
Fine art.
www.galleriejereviens.com
227-7716
► George Subkoff Antiques
Westport
17th- through 19th-century American, European and Asian antiques.
www.subkoffantiques.com
(203) 227-3515
► Guild Antiques
Greenwich. 869-0828 Mirrors, paintings, 18th- and 19th-century English furniture, Chinese Export and English porcelain.
www.guildantiques.com
869-0828
► Heller Washam Antiques
Woodbury
American 18th- and early 19th-century American furniture, accessories, paintings, textiles, folk art and Oriental rugs; garden furnishings and architectural elements.
263-6099
► Jeffrey Tillou Antiques
Litchfield
18th- and 19th-century American antiques.
(860) 567-9693
► Joel J. Einhorn
Woodbury
Marine paintings, clocks and antiques. Weekends or by appointment.
266-9090
► John Slade Ely House
New Haven
Non-profit center with eight contemporary galleries.
www.elyhouse.com
624-8055
► L. Pedersen & Company
Old Lyme
European and Oriental antiques, prints, paintings and accessories.
(860) 434-0841
► Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts
Old Lyme
www.lymeacademy.edu
(860) 434-5232
► Lyme Art Association
Old Lyme
www.lymeartassociation.org
(860) 434-7802
► Maria & Peter Warren Antiques
Wilton
18th and early 19th-century antiques.
www.warrenantiques.com
762-7353
► Mill House Antiques
Woodbury
Dining room tables, servers and sideboards, plus reproductions.
www.millhouseantiques-ct.com
263-3446
► Miriam & Aaron Levine Antiques
New Haven
Irish Belleek specialists, English period furniture, paintings, porcelain and pewter.
389-5440.
► Nathan Liverant & Son Antiques
Colchester
18th- and 19th-century American antiques.
www.liverantantiques.com
(860) 537-2409
► Quester Gallery
Greenwich
18th- through 20th-century maritime art.
www.questergallery.com
629-8022
► Sallea Antiques
New Canaan
Antique boxes.
www.salleaantiques.com
972-1050
► Sally Goodman Antiques, New Haven
Estate jewelry and silver.
387-5072
► The Cooley Gallery, Old Lyme
Paintings from the Hudson River School and Connecticut Impressionists.
www.cooleygallery.com
(860) 434-8807
► The Greenwich Gallery
Greenwich
19th- and 20th-century paintings, including the Hudson River School and contemporary paintings, sculpture and photography.
www.greenwichgallery.com
622-4494
► Thomas Schwenke Inc.
Woodbury
American Federal furniture (many tables), some reproductions.
266-0303
► Wayne Pratt Inc.
Woodbury, Nantucket
American 18th- and 19th-century furnishings, folk art and reproductions.
www.prattantiques.com
263-5676
(508) 228-8788
► Winsor Antiques
Woodbury
Early English and continental furniture and artworks.
www.winsorantiques.com
263-7017
► ArtSpace
New Haven
www.artspacenh.org
772-2709
► Woodbury Antiques and Flea Market
Woodbury
Saturdays
www.woodburyfleamarket.com
263-2841