Female Artists & Artists' Wives

The Lyme Art Colony counted few women among their ranks. In many ways, Old Lyme was a country version of the private art clubs the artists belonged to in Boston and New York. Likewise, the artists had an agreement with Miss Florence that they would review the applications of people who wanted to stay at the boardinghouse. They denied access to art students and dilettantes, but the families of artists were welcome as were a few female artists.

“I have the pleasure of announcing that Mr. and Mrs. DuMond have decided that they wish to spend the summer in Lyme with you. They would like to know if they can have the room that my mother had last summer. They will come about the first of June and will probably stay until the first of October.” 

~ Artist Allen B. Talcott (in a letter to Miss Florence), 1902

Matilda Browne was one of the few female artists who were welcomed into the enclave of Miss Florence’s “boys.” She was the only woman to paint one of the doors in the boardinghouse – a charming scene of calves grazing beneath a tree. And she was the only woman depicted in The Fox Chase, albeit in a state of hysteria with arms raised in horror after discovering Childe Hassam naked from the waist up busily painting. In the artist colony she was later joined by the sisters Lydia and Breta Longacre, and the wife on one of the painters Bessie Potter Vonnoh, a respected sculptor.

Wives of the artists were more plentiful in the boardinghouse than woman artists. In a letter of 1912 to the First Lady Ellen Axson Wilson, Miss Florence outlines the range of guests spending the summer at the boardinghouse:

“It has been a very pleasant season so far, with a large family since early spring, rather a varied one, not all artists, but other interests which have made a pleasant circle. The Greacens have been here right along, the Bittinger family also for more than a month. Mr. Warner, the Robinsons, Mr. & Mrs. Chas Chadwick who were married in the spring & who are going to stay with me until late. Charlie plays delightfully & with Mrs. Bittinger’s singing we have lovely music.” 

Meet the people of the boardinghouse by clicking choices below:

• Overview
• Miss Florence
• The Artists
• Distinguished Guests
• Domestic Staff
• Female Artists
• Non-Boarding Guests