The Florence Griswold Museum

home of american impressionism

A MATTER OF STYLE : The Influence of French Art on the Old Lyme Art Colony
October 9, 2004 through April 17, 2005
photos from opening reception

Willard Metcalf, Spring Study of Reeds in Chadwick Garden at Grez, 1885. Collection of Rhoda and David Chase

By the late 19th century many American artists were traveling to France to hone their craft, enjoy the company of like-minded individuals, and capture on canvas an impressive variety of subjects. Upon returning home, these artists were eager to replicate their experience, often incorporating the techniques they picked up abroad into their portrayals of American subjects. A Matter of Style examines which characteristics of the French Barbizon and Impressionist styles were absorbed by the American artists of the Lyme Art Colony and where they diverged from the French. The exhibition compares the works of French masters such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Claude Monet from private collections with complementary works from the Museum's American art collection.

The American Barbizon
Henry Ward Ranger was one of the artists who enthusiastically searched for an American version of the European art colonies he had visited. In 1899, while traveling through Connecticut by train Ranger became enthralled in the countryside, comparing it to the Barbizon area in France. He described the area as a “landscape waiting to be painted.” Eager to establish a collaborative artistic environment similar to that which the French artists enjoyed, Ranger encouraged other painters to follow him to Old Lyme, and the "American Barbizon" was born.

Ranger

Henry Ward Ranger,
Autumn Woodlands, 1902,
Florence Griswold Museum.
Gift of Mr. Ezekial Liverant

Ranger and his fellow artists found a kindred spirit in FlorenceGriswold, the owner of the boarding house where they stayed. The Griswold House, which the artists dubbed as the "Holy House," became the center of colony life with Miss Florence playing innkeeper to her bohemian group of painters. The artists practiced an art very much influenced by the French Barbizon painters. Like that of their French forebears, the Americans’ work favored darker tones and heavy impasto and featured woodland interiors and scenes of country life. Unlike many of their French counterparts, however, they downplayed the hardship of work on the New England farm, preferring to imbue their subjects with a romantic notion of rural labor. Ranger and his group were frequently described as Tonalists and, in fact, Ranger was considered by critics of that day as the leader of the Tonal School in America.

The American Giverny
In 1903, the influential American Impressionist Childe Hassam came to Old Lyme for the first time. He, too, was taken with Miss Florence and the landscape of the region and returned again and again over the next several years. With Hassam came a new style of painting. Influenced by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and others in France, Hassam painted in a brighter palette than did

Edward Rook, Laurel, c. 1905-10, Florence Griswold Museum. Gift of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company

Ranger and his colleagues, and his brushwork was broken into small dabs or apostrophe-like strokes of pure colorlaid side by side. Hassam is credited with turning the direction of Lyme from the “American Barbizon” to that of the “American Giverny.” While some of the Lyme painters continued to work in the Tonalist style, artists new to the colony were decidedly oriented towards Impressionism. With the arrival of Willard Metcalf, Walter Griffin, and others, the Lyme Art Colony became widely identified as a center for Impressionism in America. In comparison to the French Impressionists, many of the Lyme Impressionists adopted the style of their French counterparts, but were selective as to their choice of subject matter. Like the Tonalists, they avoided subjects that were unsettling. In addition, while they painted the same subject over and over, they did so without the scientific rigor of the French.

More than a third of the 32 paintings in A Matter of Style were selected from private collections,

many rarely seen by the public. Artists represented in the Barbizon section of the exhibition include Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Charles-Francois Daubigny, Henry Ward Ranger, Louis Paul Dessar, Bruce Crane, and Clark Voorhees. Artists represented in the Impressionist portion of the exhibition include Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Childe Hassam, Willard Metcalf, Harry Hoffman, Edward Rook, and Wilson Irvine.

Monet Claude Monet, Sailboats on the Sea, Pourville, 1882. Collection of Rhoda and David Chase

A Center for American Art
Visitors to the Florence Griswold Museum are treated to a rare opportunity. The artists of the Lyme Art Colony left Miss Florence, and generations of art lovers, something very special. Many painted directly on the walls and doors of the Griswold House. The tradition was probably imported from hostelries in the French art colonies of Barbizon, Giverny, and Pont-Aven. Forty-one such panels appear throughout the downstairs rooms. The most breathtaking example is found in the dining room. Here is one of the most complete chronicles of the art colony movement in America.