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Florence Griswold Museum, part 2
Willard Metcalf, Thawing Brook (Winter Shadows), 1911. Florence Griswold Museum.

Florence Griswold Museum, part 2

On the Museum (in Old Lyme, CT) and Miss Florence, see last week’s post. This post is available as a video at https://youtu.be/QenyUAtgeIQ.

This week: a handful of paintings from the second-floor galleries, which used to be artists’ bedrooms.

Second-floor gallery, Florence Griswold Museum.

Henry Ward Ranger, the first artist to dwell at the Griswold House and the one who encouraged all his friends to form an artists’ colony there, was a Tonalist. Emerging in the 1880s, Tonalism owed much to Barbizon painters such as Camille Corot. The Tonalists usually painted subdued rural landscapes in which dark grays, browns, or blues dominated. Here’s a late (1920) example at the Griswold, by Bruce Crane.

Bruce Crane, Hazy Weather, 1920. Florence Griswold Museum.

The Impressionist style was brought to Old Lyme by Childe Hassam, who arrived at Griswold House in 1903. In Connecticut, the Impressionists used the typical flickering brushstrokes, but focused on rural New England landscapes painted with fresher, brighter colors than the Tonalists.

Rocky outcrops such as the one in Eggleston’s Lyme are typical of eastern Connecticut.

Benjamin Eggleston (1867-1937), Lyme, Connecticut. Florence Griswold Museum.

Maurice Braun, a student of William Merritt Chase, is best known as a California Impressionist, but he also painted on the East Coast.

Maurice Braun, Brook at Old Lyme, Connecticut, ca. 1923. Florence Griswold Museum.

Many of the Old Lyme painters came to the area to get away from urban society. Here Edward Rook takes a nostalgic look at one of the small mills that were disappearing throughout New England.

Edward Rook, Swirling Waters, ca. 1917. Florence Griswold Museum.

The Lieutenant flows into the Connecticut River near Griswold House. The unusual viewpoint in Harry Hoffman’s painting is reminiscent of Japanese prints, which had become popular in the West by the 1890s. Hoffman (1874-1966) helped promote the creation of the Griswold Museum.

Harry Hoffman, Bridging the Lieutenant, 1906. Florence Griswold Museum.

Willard Metcalf painted his charming daughter Rosalind during a summer in Connecticut. (I used Metcalf’s On the Suffolk Coast, 1885, as a recent Sunday Recommendation.)

Willard Metcalf, Child in Sunlight, 1915. Florence Griswold Museum.

Metcalf painted Thawing Brook (Winter Shadows) at Cornish, New Hampshire, while staying at the artists’ colony that grew up around Augustus Saint Gaudens’s home. Lovely composition.

Willard Metcalf, Thawing Brook (Winter Shadows), 1911. Florence Griswold Museum.

The view of a Chinese junk through a screen of lantern-hung trees was influenced by Japanese prints, as was Ball’s contribution to the dining room in Griswold House (see last week’s post).

Thomas Watson Ball (1863-1934), Chinese Twilight. Florence Griswold Museum.

And finally: I like this painting very much, but couldn’t discover its title. According to the frame, Carl Lawless (1894-1964) was awarded the Gedney Bunce Prize for it in 1931. (William Gedney Bunce is familiar to me only because Saint Gaudens did a relief portrait of him.)

Carl Lawless, ???, 1931. Florence Griswold Museum.

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  • The Florence Griswold Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday. The property includes walking paths, gardens, a gallery with modern art, and a small cafe.
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