Finding Religion: American Art from the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection
Exhibition traces spirituality as a source of inspiration in American Art
January 14 through May 28, 2006
Old Lyme, CT – December 16, 2005: Finding Religion: American Art from the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection, a new exhibition on view January 14 through May 28, 2006 at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut, explores how the ideas of religion and spirituality were manifested and conveyed in American art between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. Using forty works drawn entirely from the Museum’s Hartford Steam Boiler Collection, Finding Religion examines the various paths artists such as Ralph Earl, Frederic Church, Fidelia Bridges, and John Twachtman have taken in their quest to find religion in the world around them.
From sweeping and majestic images of the natural world to highly personal images of family and home, this exhibition explores the many expressions of faith and spirituality in art and considers their roles in shaping American culture. “The breadth of the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection presents the opportunity to consider the significant transitions of national self-definition through a series of new lenses,” notes Dr. Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, a leading scholar in the fields of art, religious, and cultural studies at Georgetown University. “The exhibition challenges us to look at these works from the perception of, and in response to, a variety of religious and spiritual expressions.”
From Bibles to Buildings
Organized by Dr. Emily Weeks Florentino, the Museum’s former curator of American art, Finding Religion: American Art from the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection is divided into several themes, with historical evidence and scholarly observations used to interpret each section. Often, the relationship between art and religion can be simple and transparent, as viewed in The Good Word section of the exhibition. Here, the paintings are all portraits dating from 1793 to 1890. Visual clues, often a Bible or other devotional text, allude to the sitter’s steadfast spiritual resolve. The striking and highly stylized features in Ammi Phillips’ Portrait of Katherine Salisbury Newkirk Hickok (c. 1825) reference aspects of Puritanism found in that era.
Whenever organized religion has seemed too limiting, Americans have often turned to the natural world for inspiration. In the 19th century, popular philoso-
phical movements held that nature was “God’s other book,” a sacred text of truly awesome proportions. The section Landscapes of Belief uses the art of Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, and others to explain these values. Taking the observation of, and devotion to, nature one-step further, artists influenced by the British art critic and philosopher John Ruskin (1813-1900) believed that the informed observance of nature was nothing less than “following the finger of God.” In his view, art, religion, and nature were inextricably intertwined. John F. Kensett’s Study of a Burdoch Plant and Fidelia Bridges Thistle in a Field (1875) exemplify this philosophy.
Also in the 1800s, many Christian denominations began redefining religion as a matter of the heart rather than the mind. Paintings from the section entitled Morality, Domesticity, and the Modern Madonna, such as John Henry Twachtman’s Barnyard (c. 1890-1900) and George de Forest Brush’s In the Garden (1923), are rich with images of women and children and illustrate the parallel that was drawn between the American mother and child and the Madonna and Child.
In the early 19th century, America’s wilderness spoke of divine promise, but it was the city that mattered at the century’s end. The paintings selected to represent the theme Civil Religion: History, Nationalism, and the Idea of America, such as Guy Wiggins’ patriotic Washington’s Birthday at Madison Square (1927), suggest that the booming metropolitan environment of America, although fraught with problems, unified individual citizens, and, like a church, offered a public space in which citizens could join together for a spirited observation of national unity. The gradual shift in America’s religious focus – from reading the Bible to “reading” a monument, and from practicing pious acts to revering patriotic icons – has led many to see modern America as secular.
Finding Religion is generously supported by grants from The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, The Starr Foundation, and the George A. and Grace L. Long Foundation. An active schedule of lectures and educational programs, which follows this release and is also listed on-line at www.florencegriswoldmuseum.org, further illuminates the diverse themes of the exhibition.
The Hartford Steam Boiler Collection
The paintings in this exhibition were selected from among the 190 works of American art that were given to the Florence Griswold Museum in 2002 by The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company. It is the Museum’s goal to share these works with the public through innovative exhibitions and loans to other Museums worldwide. Works from this collection are currently on view in Paris and London.
The Florence Griswold Museum
The Florence Griswold Museum encompasses eleven acres along the Lieutenant River in Old Lyme, Connecticut. In addition to the original 1817 Griswold House, where the artists of the Lyme Art Colony lived, the Museum features a modern riverfront gallery, education center, historic gardens, and a restored artist studio. Open year round, the Museum is located at 96 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT, exit 70 off I-95. Due to the restoration of the Griswold House, admission to the Museum has been reduced to $5 for adults, seniors, and students. Children ages 12 and under are free. This special offer will remain in effect through the run of the exhibition. For additional information contact the Museum at 860/434-5542 or www.florencegriswoldmuseum.org.
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