John Ludlow Morton (1792-1871)
View of the School House at Greens Farms, c. 1840
Oil on canvas, 18 x 24”
Signed and inscribed on the reverse

This Adams Academy schoolhouse, which still stands, was just three or four years old when Morton, a well-established portrait, history, and landscape painter, depicted this scene. A lifelong New Yorker, Morton appears seldom to have ventured beyond the Hudson Highlands. He may have visited Greens Farms, near Southport, Connecticut, to see why it had become a popular resort. The school held summer sessions that were well attended by the vacationers’ children. Morton juxtaposed sedate scholars (was any school recess ever so calm?) and fellows going to or coming from a shoot in a sporty open carriage, their high spirits reflected in the buoyancy of their horses and dogs. Lush farmland is in the background here. This Connecticut place is mainly for schooling and sport.