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.