Art is intrinsic to daily life in Greenwich, the premier Connecticut Gold Coast community about 30 miles northeast of Manhattan. Here sculpture gardens enhance public parks, private buildings and residential compounds. Pedestrians, drivers on I-95 and commuters on the Metro-North rail line are familiar with Mark di Suvero’s bright-red “Borealis,” a 29-foot welded contemporary sculpture at the Ashforth Company’s Greenwich Plaza building. At Pickwick Plaza, passersby enjoy “The Gossips,” a life-like Harry Marinsky sculpture installed by Cavalier Galleries. And children play on Shay Rieger’s “Yak,” outside the Greenwich Library; romp among Brian Cooley’s “Pachyrhinosaurus,” three sculptures on the grounds of the Bruce Museum; and frolic around Deborah Butterfield’s horse figures at Bruce Park. This is Greenwich, where there are so many local collectors that the Bruce Museum had to feature two “Pleasure of Collecting” exhibits. It’s also where Rodin’s “Monument to the Burghers of Calais” used to greet visitors at Joseph Hirshhorn’s former estate. (Now, it’s part of the vast collection at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.)

Such an atmosphere bodes well for collectors in search of fine art and antiques. Greenwich’s top-notch art galleries and prestigious antiques dealers are mainly located on two major arteries that form a T-shaped shopping corridor: Putnam Avenue (a.k.a. U.S. Route 1 and “Boston” Post Road) is the top of the “T” and Greenwich Avenue--the chic store-lined street that flows one-way south--is the perpendicular leg. Start your tour at their juncture, where the numbers are lowest, at The Greenwich Gallery, 2 Greenwich Avenue. Partners Abby Taylor and Vincent Vallarino offer works by 19th- and 20th-century American and European painters as well as a remarkable collection of museum-quality sculpture. (The gallery recently sold a Rodin bust to the National Gallery.) You would recognize many names in their stable of artists, including Severin Roesen (1815-72), a leading 19th-century American still-life painter, whose opulent oil-on-canvas “Still Life with Fruit,” is priced at $265,000. Another is Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823–1900), one of the artists central to the Hudson River School. Notable 20th-century American artists include Milton Avery, Alexander Calder and Wolf Kahn. Prices range from $1,500 for drawings and watercolors on paper, to $265,000 for Chagall’s “Peintre au Roi David,” a circa 1979 tempera on Masonite.

Francophiles should take note of Provinces de France at 22 West Putnam, where owners Jenny Berry and Paul Kechejian offer an array of French 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century furnishings and accessories. In abundance are gilded mirrors, Louis XV style buffets and fauteuils (upholstered armchairs). One pair—in 19th-century Louis XV–style with graceful, wooden arms—features a stunning floral fabric and is priced at $5,900. Also in the gallery, a 19th-century walnut buffet from Burgundy is $14,750. While here, look for a selection of French plates, antique pottery and a pair of circa 1870 matching opaline vases.