Blog

This week’s post is mostly on the legacy of the Colt family to the Wadsworth. The introduction to this series, about the Wadsworth family and the Wadsworth Atheneum, is here. For all posts in the series, click here.

Tavern Sign: William Rice, ca. 1800-1825

This huge (4 x 6 feet), charming lion was a billboard for a tavern on the Albany-Hartford Turnpike. Rice, who painted such signs throughout New England, attracted the attention of travelers by use of bold imagery, gilt, and ground glass.

View of the Colt Factory from Dutch Point, 1857; and View of the Colt Works with Steamboat from the South, Colt Meadows, 1857

Hartford is now “The Insurance Capital of the World,” but in the mid-nineteenth-century, access to water power helped make it one of the early hubs of the Industrial Revolution in the United States. The man responsible for starting Hartford’s growth was Samuel Colt, a Connecticut native. In 1836, Colt received a patent for a revolver that could fire multiple times without reloading, and without manually aligning the cylinder and the barrel.

The U.S. government ordered a thousand Colt revolvers during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), and by 1855, Colt had constructed a large factory near downtown Hartford, recognizable for a blue onion dome spangled with gilt stars topped by a rearing horse. Colt’s revolvers were constructed with interchangeable parts on an assembly line. The factory’s workers were housed in Coltsville, a “city within a city”. Soon after his factory was completed in 1855, Samuel Colt commissioned the views above of the factory, with its distinctive dome, and neighboring Hartford. The unknown artist was probably local.

When he died in 1862, Samuel Colt was one of the wealthiest men in America. His wife Elizabeth took over the Colt Factory, running it for 43 years and becoming one of the earliest and most prominent women industrialists in the United States. With the aid of Frederic Church, Elizabeth also formed a notable collection of artworks by Thomas Cole, John Kensett, and others. Dying in 1905 without heirs (five children predeceased her), Elizabeth bequeathed her collection to the Wadsworth Atheneum, along with money for construction of a new wing for the museum.

Colonel Samuel Colt: Edward Sheffield Bartholomew, ca. 1857

Bartholomew, born in Connecticut and trained in Rome, was commissioned by Colt to sculpt busts of himself and his family. They were executed in the popular Neoclassical style.

Samuel Colt as a Boy: J. Massey Rhind, 1902

This charming maquette was the small-scale model for the figure on the base of the Colt Monument in Colt Park, Hartford, on the site of Samuel and Elizabeth’s estate. Young Samuel (b. 1814) was fascinated with fireworks. After one particularly explosive July 4th celebration, his father sent him off to sea. There he was inspired by a ship’s capstan to design a revolver whose cylinders would be automatically aligned with the barrel. (Earlier revolvers had required that the shooter manually align the cylinder with the barrel.) Samuel carved the first model out of wood. Several of the original wood carvings are in this case.

Back in America, Samuel raised money for production of his revolver by performing nitrous oxide (laughing gas) demonstrations across the U.S. and Canada.

Rhind sculpted several works in New York City, notably General Alexander Stuart Webb.

The Charter Oak: Charles De Wolf Brownell, 1857

What is the Charter Oak, you ask … if you weren’t raised in Connecticut. Well, let me tell you.

In 1662, King Charles II granted Connecticut a charter giving it an unusual degree of self-government. In 1687, British Governor-General Andros, wishing to impose a more authoritarian colonial government, attempted to seize the Charter. (Largely a symbolic gesture: but imagine someone seizing and destroying the Declaration of Independence.) According to legend, while Andros was examining the document the candles were suddenly extinguished, and Captain Joseph Wadsworth, ancestor of the founder of the Wadsworth Atheneum, spirited the Charter away. He hid it in a huge white oak tree in Hartford, known henceforth as the Charter Oak.

When the tree was blown down in a storm in 1856, Connecticut residents made many commemorative drawings and paintings, including the one above. The frame of this painting was carved from pieces of the Charter Oak’s wood. Innumerable other objects, large and small, were carved from the Charter Oak’s wood, which was sold or gifted by the man who owned the property at the time. Among the objects were chairs for three members of Connecticut’s legislature, and a chair carved by Frederic Church that’s still on display at his home, Olana.

Charter Oak Chair: John H. Most and Charles Burger, 1857

The Hartford City Council commissioned Most and Burger to create a mayoral chair from Charter Oak wood, complete with arms of Hartford and Connecticut. Samuel Colt purchased the chair when the City failed to pay the invoice.

Charter Oak and Wyllys House: George Francis, ca. 1858

The Charter Oak stood on land that once belonged to George Wyllys (1598/90-1644/45), whose home is included in the distance of this painting.

Colt Family Cradle: Isaac W. Stuart and John H. Most, 1857

On a more personal level: Samuel and Elizabeth Colt commissioned this elaborate cradle for their first-born son, who unfortunately died in infancy. Note the rearing colts on the uprights. The wood is from the Charter Oak; the amethyst, topaz, and other precious stones from Russia.

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

• 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.
• Want wonderful art delivered weekly to your inbox? Check out my free Sunday Recommendations list and rewards for recurring support: details here.