The artist Henry Rankin Poore begins his famous frieze at the far right by identifying the colony as the “School of Lyme” and flanking the words with a bottle of “MASTIC” on one side and a bottle of “RYE” on the other. A misnomer at best, the term “school” does not refer to a teaching institution, since most of the affiliated artists were trained professionals by the time they came to Old Lyme, but rather to a group of like-minded artists coming together to a common place with a common purpose. In other words, an art colony. As one artist put it, the members of the Lyme Art Colony shared “a kindred feeling and common understanding as to matters and methods relating to art.”

“The school of Lyme is a group of painters brought together over the idea of tonality.”

~ Artist Henry Rankin Poore, 1903

“The Lyme school, by which is meant those who are acknowledged masters of their art, have gathered together by invitation and by gravitation, not more by reason of the unusual advantages of scenery than by a kindred feeling and common understanding as to matters and methods relating to their art.”

~ Journalist, Anthony H. Euwer, 1904

The art colony at Old Lyme was part of a national trend (as well as international) for artists, musicians, and writers to retreat from the modernity of the cities in search of solace and picturesque subject matter in the country. During the last decades of the 19th century and into the 20th century, painting colonies developed across America in such diverse places as Laguna Beach, California; New Hope, Pennsylvania; and Provincetown, Massachusetts. In each instance, the location of the colony provided the same necessary elements: desirable subject matter, access from the city via reliable transportation, inexpensive lodgings, a charismatic leader, and a sympathetic innkeeper.

“I know of no colony in Europe, where art colonies are as thick as blackberries, that can compare with it, and I have scoured the country over there pretty thoroughly with my classes.”

~ Artist Frank Vincent DuMond, 1907

In Old Lyme, this list was satisfied by the rural character of the local countryside, the trains and ferries from New York, the Griswold boardinghouse, the jovial yet often dictatorial Henry Ward Ranger, and, perhaps most importantly, Florence Griswold. As one boarder put it, “Her optimism was unquenchable and her personality so persuasive that everyone who went there came under her spell.” Indeed, the Lyme Art Colony was to become one of the largest and longest lived of the American art colonies.

Dilapidated carriage shed behind the Griswold House

Florence Griswold with bouquet of phlox, c. 1915

The bottles of “MASTIC” and “RYE” are clever references to the two main activities of the artists while in Old Lyme, namely painting and relaxing. The nearly full bottle of mastic refers to a natural resin that would be mixed into the artists’ paints. The nearly empty bottle of rye refers to rye whiskey, an American-made liquor popular at the turn of the 20th century. Note that the bottle of mastic is corked, whereas the bottle of rye is shown open.

“It looks like Barbizon, the land of Millet. See the gnarled oaks, the low rolling country. This land has been farmed and cultivated by men, and then allowed to revert back into the arms of mother nature. It is only waiting to be painted.”

~ Art Colony Founder Henry Ward Ranger

To learn more about the School of Lyme click below:

• Intro
• Bottle of Mastic - Artists at Work
• Painting En Plein Air
• Painting in the Studio
• Bottle of Rye - Artists at Play