The Florence Griswold Museum

home of american impressionism

THE “HOLY HOUSE ”: Spirit of a Place
June 4, 2005 through May 21, 2006

Krieble Gallery

the Holy House co-curators

Co-curators of the Museum's latest exhibition, The “Holy House”: Spirit of a Place, Liz Farrow, Research Associate and Jeffrey Andersen, Museum Director, decide where to hang one of the Museum's newest acquisitions. Autumn Landscape with Stream by Lewis Cohen has happily returned home. Inscribed “To my friend Miss Florence Griswold" and dated 1902, the painting was a gift from the artist to Florence Griswold. Cohen and Miss Florence had a long friendship and she had a number of his paintings in her home, including this one. Florence Griswold bequeathed this painting to a cousin, Sarah Diodati Gardiner. It remained in the Gardiner Family until Robert D.L. Gardiner, Sarah’s nephew, passed away in New York in 2004. The Museum recently purchased the painting at auction.

During the early decades of the twentieth century Old Lyme was home to a thriving artist colony. Centered in Florence Griswold’s boardinghouse, the Lyme Art Colony included such noted artists as Childe Hassam, Willard Metcalf, and Henry Ward Ranger, as well as Woodrow Wilson and his wife, the painter Ellen Axson Wilson. The lively esprit de corps of the household was described by Hassam as “just the place for high thinking and low living.” Between 1902 and 1905, scores of art students flocked to Old Lyme to study plein air painting. Out of admiration for the artists of the Lyme Art Colony, they took to calling the Griswold House the “Holy House,” a label that quickly gained currency among the residents themselves.

Artists at the Griswold House, c. 1905

I find the make-up of the household here a good deal altered. People come and go. You no sooner get interested in them and they are off. – Woodrow Wilson, July 25, 1909

This exhibition displays a group of paintings and artifacts that are most closely and familiarly associated with the Griswold House in a completely new setting: the Robert and Nancy Krieble Gallery. This installation provides audiences the rare opportunity to look at these objects out of the context of the Griswold House.

William Henry Howe (1846-1929)
Normandy Bull, 1901, oil on wooden door panels
Florence Griswold Museum, 1941.5Normandy Bull, painted on a closet door in Miss Florence’s parlor, effectively uses the paneling to give the illusion of looking into a stable. The tradition of painting on panels and doors was one that the Old Lyme artists were first exposed to in France and Holland. This practice could be found in any country inn and hotel favored by artists during the 19th century. The painted panels and doors of the Griswold House comprise an extraordinary ensemble, a singular example of the spirit of an artists’ colony in America. It has never been removed from the Griswold House.

By taking these paintings and artifacts out of the historic house (which is currently undergoing a comprehensive restoration) and placing them in a modern “museum” space, visitors can take a fresh new look at their appearance and meaning. “With the Griswold House under restoration, we have an unusual chance to look at these objects in a dramatically different way,” reflects Jeffrey Andersen, Museum Director and co-curator for the exhibition with Research Associate Liz Farrow. The exhibition introduces Florence Griswold, her household, and the artists who became part of the “School of Lyme” between 1900 and 1910. “The Holy House” is also a preview of how the Museum is refurnishing and reinterpreting the Griswold House as a boardinghouse for artists, circa 1910, that will premiere in the summer of 2006.

Everything at the “Holy House” was tailored to the particular needs of the artist. Surrounded by the diverse and inspiring countryside of Lyme and Old Lyme, guests were provided inexpensive room and board, studio space crafted out of outbuildings and barns, and the occasional social entertainment, often initiated by the cheerfully optimistic personality of Miss Florence herself. She devoted herself to creating an environment where, as one visitor put it, “the soul of the artist is content.” While the reality of her hopes and dreams sometimes fell short of materialization, her efforts aroused the loyalty of her boarders and the admiration of the press and public.

Did you Know?
Did You Know boxes give kids and adults alike fun facts about Miss Florence and the artists of the Lyme Art Colony.

The Museum would like to thank the Fleischer Foundation and the Community Foundation of Southeastern Connecticut for their support of this exhibition.