In Voorhees’ Garden, 1914
Oil on canvas, 18 x 24”
Signed and dated lower right
Her painting style was modern, but Matilda Browne, like most American Impressionists, chose subjects that were not. This historic Dutch Colonial belonged to fellow Old Lyme artist Clark Voorhees, who had restored it and planted the old-fashioned flowers that the Colonial Revival movement had made desirable again
American Impressionists promoted the Colonial Revival, believing that old New England houses and cottage gardens exemplified venerable Yankee values of modesty, hard work, and craftsmanship, which had to be preserved for the nation to thrive.