Impressionist New England: Four Seasons of Color and Light

Location: Special Exhibitions Gallery
Open For Viewing: April 20 – October 20, 2024

“To one New England means inland hills and river valleys; to another, the rocky shore and the beating sea; to yet another, the quieter coves of the sound.” – Odell D. Tompkins, New England Magazine, April 1901

What is it about ‘New England’—as both a setting and a subject—that has captured Impressionist painters’ attention for over a century? Artist colonies popped up in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut in the late 19th century, attracting some of America’s best-known painters. Gloucester, Provincetown, Old Lyme, Ogunquit, and others continue to have thriving local art communities today. On display in the Special Exhibitions Gallery, this exhibition celebrates New England–its natural beauty through the seasons, its people, its small towns, and its glorious light–as seen through the eyes of local painters and poets.

Included artists: Sam Barber, Gerrit Beneker, Sheila Benzer, Matilda Browne, William Chadwick, Oliver Chaffee, Anne Ramsdell Congdon, Joseph DeCamp, Frank Vincent DuMond, Harold Dunbar, Charles Ebert, Joseph Eliot Enneking, Loretta Feeney, Gertrude Fiske, Lillian Hale, Childe Hassam, Charles Webster Hawthorne, Henry Hensche, Aldro T. Hibbard, Felicie Waldo Howell, Wilson Henry Irvine, Louise Kamp, Nellie Augusta Knopf, Susan Ricker Knox, Harriet Lumis, Dodge MacKnight, Elmer MacRae, Willard Metcalf, George L. Noyes, Hillary Osborn, Pauline Palmer, Marguerite Pearson, Jane Peterson, Doug Rugh, Frank Vining Smith, Mary Bradish Titcomb, John Twachtman, Edward Charles Volkert, Carol Whorf Westcott, John Whorf, Mabel May Woodward,

New England-based poets Amanda Davis, Lauren Wolk, and Rich Holschuh were invited to create or share works inspired by Fall, Summer, and Winter, respectively. Also included is a Spring-themed poem by Provincetown poet Mary Oliver.

In Voorhees' Garden

Maltilda Brown (1869-1947), 1914, oil on canvas, collection of Florence Griswold Museum, gift of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company

Rigger's Shop, Provincetown, MA

Childe Hassam (1859-1935), 1902, oil on canvas, collection of New Britain Museum of American Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. Lawrence Pond

November Mosiac

Willard Leroy Metcalf ( 1858-1925), 1922, oil on canvas, collection of New Britain Museum of American Art, John Butler Talcott Fund

Old House, South End

Elmer Livingston McRae (1875-1953), ca. 1910, oil on canvas, collection of Greenwich Historical Society, museum purchase with gifts from Friends of the Historical Society