Florence Griswold (1850-1937) turned her ship captain father’s home in Old Lyme, Connecticut, into a boarding house to make ends meet. It rapidly became a mecca for artists and the hub for American impressionism, a place to paint alone in plein air and a place to commune with like-minded artists. The Florence Griswold Museum explores the theme of alone and together in the exhibition Social & Solitary: Reflections on Art, Isolation, and Renewal June 5 through September 19.
Willard Metcalf (1858-1925), Ethelinda and James, 1890. Oil on canvas, 15 x 17 in. Florence Griswold Museum, purchase, 2017.9.
Responding to the disruptions of society brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum explains, “The Florence Griswold Museum will present its own collection as a reflection on the themes of the social and solitary that we have all endured over the past year or more. Using historic and contemporary works from the collection, as well as a collaboration with contemporary artist jackie sumell on an outdoor commission, the exhibition will be organized into thematic sections such as ‘Places to Gather,’ ‘Artists’ Studios and Spaces,’ ‘Solitude,’ ‘Companionship,’ ‘Taking a Walk: Being Alone Together in Nature’ and ‘Struggle and Renewal.’”
John Ludlow Morton (1792-1871), View of the School House at Greens Farms, 1840. Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in. Florence Griswold Museum, gift of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, 2002.1.98.
As part of the reflection, the museum turned inward. It looked to its history as “an institution founded by members of an artist colony that thrived on both the social and solitary. For early-20th-century artists, the art colony experience provided a much-needed balance between these opposites. Located in the country and organized informally by word of mouth, it served as an antidote, or an attractive ‘other’ to the official art world codified in urban environments that were run by academies and various societies. Art colonies, like the one based in Old Lyme, developed as participants sought retreat from the over-stimulating global arena to find meditative reflection on a local level. The environment at Florence Griswold’s offered a recipe for an ideal adaptation of American impressionism: the capability to paint in plein air in solitude by immersing oneself in rural nature by day, as well as the opportunity to engage with energizing, cosmopolitan discourse once gathered around the dining room and parlor tables by night.”
Mary Knollenberg (1904-1992), Dora Washington, 1930-31. Bronze, 15 x 8 x 6 in. Florence Griswold Museum, gift of Ippy Patterson, 2015.2.
Harry L. Hoffman (1871-1964), Harvest Moon Walk, ca. 1912. Oil on canvas, 24¼ x 26¼ in. Florence Griswold Museum, anonymous gift, X1972.214
Willard Metcalf (1858-1925) spent three summers at Griswold’s and, in 1906, painted May Night, a view of the house in the moonlight. It is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. In 1907 he wrote to her, “I hope you are having a pleasant summer and the house is full and all are happy—I can imagine you all sitting out on the steps—or wandering about—enjoying this night’s moonlight.” In 2017, the museum acquired his painting Ethelinda and James, depicting a couple alone together on their summer porch—he reading his book and she nodding off next to hers.
Along with historic artwork, the show includes a number of contemporary works. Tina Barney photographed Three Women who happened to be visiting the museum the day she was shooting there. Her image is an enormous 40-by-50-inch chromogenic print in which every detail of their person and dress can be lingered over. They stand next to the dining table that witnessed countless conversations among the artists who boarded there and who contributed paintings for the room’s walls. —
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