Fresh Fields: American Impressionist Landscapes from the Florence Griswold Museum
Fresh Fields is a celebration of the Museum’s most beloved landscape paintings created by Impressionist artists who visited Old Lyme, Connecticut.
The selection highlights major acquisitions, such as Childe Hassam’s Apple Trees in Bloom, Old Lyme (1904), and emphasizes ongoing research about our landscape that informed development of the Robert F. Schumann Artists’ Trail. Paintings, drawings, archival materials, and photographs shed light on the history and ecology of Old Lyme, which made it a gathering place for artists.
The exhibition also calls upon the knowledge and viewpoints of outside experts to build interdisciplinary understanding. In addition to our own curators and art history scholars, contributors will include an ecologist, members of the local Native American community, and experts on women’s history and African-American history. Fresh Fields relies on those with expertise in these areas to help create a more complete understanding of the human history, culture, and values that shaped these Impressionist landscapes.
Lucien Abrams, The Orchard, 1916. Oil on canvas, 26 1/8 x 32 1/8 in. Florence Griswold Museum, Gift of Mrs. Lucien Abrams, 1971.18
Childe Hassam, Apple Trees in Bloom, Old Lyme, 1904. 25 x 30 in., Florence Griswold Museum, Gift of the Vincent Dowling Family Foundation in Honor of Director Emeritus Jeffrey Andersen
Willard Metcalf, Dogwood Blossoms, 1906. 29 in. x 26 in. Florence Griswold Museum, Gift of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company
This exhibition is made possible with generous support from CT Humanities, the Department of Economic and Community Development, Connecticut Office of the Arts, Ms. Barbara Smith, Mr. Andy Baxter, Mr. Jon Cohen, The Vincent Dowling Family Foundation, Mr. J. Geddes & Mrs. Kathryn Parsons, Bouvier Insurance, Mr. Wayn & Mrs. Barbara Harms, Mr. David W. Dangremond, Mr. Jeffrey & Mrs. Betsey Cooley, Mr. Roy & Mrs. Deborah Moore, Mr. Frank Hamilton III, Mr. Richard & Mrs. Barbara Booth, Mr. William Blunt White, Jr., Mr. Larry & Mrs. Sally Lawrence, Mr. Jeb & Mrs. Dianne Embree, Mr. George & Mrs. Jane Rapport, Mr. Robert Tierney & Mrs. Carolyn Wakeman, Mr. Jonathan & Mrs. Deborah Butler, as well as donors to the Museum’s Annual Fund.
