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A few weeks ago a friend told me, “Hartford’s a weird town with a truly great museum.” A search on TripAdvisor turned up the Wadsworth Atheneum: the oldest continually operating public art museum in the United States.

Historical background

The Wadsworths were among the families that founded Hartford back in 1636. During the Revolutionary War and into the early years of the republic, Jeremiah Wadsworth (1743-1804) was one of the wealthiest men in Hartford, involved in trade, banking, and insurance. He was also a friend of many of the Founding Fathers. A plaque in front of the Atheneum notes that George Washington frequently visited the Wadsworth home, which became the site of the Atheneum.

John Trumbull, a Connecticut native who became famous for his representations of Revolutionary War scenes and figures, painted a charming portrait of Jeremiah and son Daniel Wadsworth in 1784, when Daniel was thirteen.

Taken on the Grand Tour by his father, Daniel (1771–1848) was introduced to European art and architecture. In 1794, he married Faith Trumbull, niece of the famous painter. Daniel became an amateur artist and architect, and more importantly for our story, a patron of American artists. He helped the career of Thomas Cole, an early painter of the Hudson River School. This painting by Cole shows Daniel’s home, Monte Video, near Hartford.

Daniel Wadsworth recommended to Cole that he accept Frederic Edwin Church as a student. Church became among the most famous of the Hudson River School painters. Wadsworth also raised money to purchase the collection of the American Academy of Fine Arts in New York when the Academy shut its doors in 1841.

The Wadsworth Atheneum, founded a year later, included works from the Academy (mostly in the Neoclassical style) and works from his own collection, which was very strong on Hudson River School paintings. The name “Atheneum” is derived from Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom. The building housed not only the museum, but Hartford’s public library and the Connecticut Historical Society.

The museum’s original home, still standing on Atheneum Square at Main Street, is a castle-like structure designed by Alexander Jackson Davis and Ithiel Town. Davis was America’s most famous architect at the time: his works include Lyndhurst, Federal Hall in Manhattan, and the Octagon on Roosevelt Island in New York City.

The Atheneum now fills a city block. The first major addition to the museum was the 1910 Morgan Wing in Beaux Arts style. J.P. Morgan, one of America’s most famous financiers, was a native of Hartford. He bequeathed parts of his art collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, part to the Morgan Library, and part to the Wadsworth Atheneum.

The Avery Wing of the Wadsworth Atheneum opened in 1934 – one of the earliest pieces of institutional architecture in America to be designed in the International Style. For a Wadsworth timeline, including many notable firsts, see this page.

Next week: first in a series of posts on artworks at the Wadsworth Atheneum.

Wadsworth posts on American art

When I visited the Wadsworth, visitors were sent through the galleries in reverse chronological order due to social distancing. If you’d rather read the posts in order (seventeenth through twentieth centuries), the sequence would be as follows. Part 1 is the introduction to the series.

• part 12: 16th to early 19th centuries, including Copley, Trumbull, and Earl
• part 2: late 18th c., including Copley and Earl

• part 3: early and mid-19th c., early Hudson River School, including Cole and Church
• part 11: mid-19th c., including the Colt legacy and the Charter Oak
• part 4: mid-19th c., including Church and Bierstadt
• part 6: late 19th c. painting and sculpture, including Church, Remington, and Bierstadt
• part 5: late 19th c. painting, including Church and Heade
• part 9: late 19th and early 20th c. painting and sculpture
• part 10: late 19th and early 20th c. sculpture, including MacMonnies and Frishmuth
• part 8: early and mid-20th c. painting and sculpture, including Andrew Wyeth
• Part 7: survey of images of Niagara Falls, from the 17th to 21st centuries, including Trumbull, Cole, Bierstadt, and Church.

More

• Click Museums in the tag cloud for visits to other museums.

• In Getting More Enjoyment from Sculpture You Love, I demonstrate a method for looking at sculptures in detail, in depth, and on your own. Learn to enjoy your favorite sculptures more, and find new favorites. Available on Amazon print and Kindle formats.
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