December Moon Rise, c.1908
Oil on canvas, 28 1/4 x 36”
Signed lower right
A New York City native, Voorhees was on the way to a career in the sciences when he decided to study art at the Académie Julian in Paris. He spent summer in Old Lyme in 1896, returned in 1901, then moved to town year-round. His paintings won prestigious prizes nationwide.
In this one he exhibits the Tonalist vein that continued in Old Lyme after Henry Ward Ranger departed for Noank, but Voorhees also painted in the Impressionist style that came to dominate the art colony. Both modes aim to interpret rather than imitate nature.