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The Members' Opening for White, Green, and Gold and A Corner in an Etcher's Studio was a huge success. Members were welcomed by Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company President and CEO Richard Booth (seen here with his wife Barbara) and then got a first glimpse of the new exhibitions.

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White, Green, and Gold examines the enduring appeal nature and its seasons has had for American artists over the past two centuries. Although many of these paintings seem to capture nature at a precise moment, collectively they represent the breadth and variety that define the four seasons in American painting. From the early blossoms of spring to the crimson leaves of fall, and from the long warm days of summer to cold nights of winter, the four seasons of the northeast have inspired artists, writers, residents, and visitors to the region.
The paintings on view are part of a gift to the Florence Griswold Museum from The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company. In 2001, this company donated its collection of 190 premier works of art by artists with connections to Connecticut. This is the second exhibition of a series that will eventually present the entire collection to the public. Many of these works are on view for the first time at the Florence Griswold Museum.

This exhibition is generously sponsored by The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company.

In conjunction with this exhibition, the Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library in Old Lyme has a display of art and poetry books that further illustrates the fascination with nature and its seasons that artists and writers have had throughout the centuries.

SPRING
And all that seemed as dead afresh doth live.
Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

Spring has for centuries had an association with rebirth and life. For this reason, Anne Bradstreet’s words describing seasonal change still ring true today.

Certain trends emerge in depictions of spring across a hundred years’ span. Early in the 19th century, artists brought spirituality to bear on their interpretations of spring. They considered the renewal of life a sign of divine intervention. Toward the middle of the century, artists turned away from religious explanations toward ones rooted more in science. Scientific advances such as Darwin’s theory of evolution altered our traditional notions and perceptions of the season. Implicit in the scientific interpretation of spring was a systematic study of nature as a source of wisdom and knowledge about the world.

Both spiritualistic and scientific depictions of spring are on display in this section of the exhibition. Thomas Cole’s Study for A Wild Scene demonstrates a mystical appreciation of nature rather than a scientific one, whereas Fidelia Bridge’s Wild Roses Among Rye offers an intimate study of nature without the divine overtones.

Thomas Cole, Study for A Wild Scene, 1831

Fidelia Bridges, Wild Roses Among Rye, 1874

SUMMER
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

The temperate climate and long bright days of summer afford it a special place in our minds. Today, New Englanders associate summer with farmers’ markets and lazy days spent in the garden or by the sea. This was not always so. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, summer was seen in terms of agricultural production. The long days and warmer weather were suitable for fieldwork. This aspect of summer is represented in Edward Volkert’s Harrowing, which depicts a farmer and his oxen toiling on the land. William Wheeler’s Still Life with Watermelon reflects the bounty of the season.

In the late 19th century, summer resorts flourished in the northeast. Some were along the coastline, while others were in the mountains. All offered relief from the hustle and bustle of the modern world for a growing leisure class. Some of the most fashionable summer resorts were discovered first by artists and were once artist colonies. John Ferguson Weir’s Beach at Easthampton represents the picturesque Long Island beach on the verge of becoming a summer resort.

William Wheeler , Still Life with Watermelon, 1865

John Ferguson Weir , Beach at Easthampton, c. 1875

FALL
It is at the season of the fading leaf that nature utters her loudest warning.
Edward Hitchcock (1793-1864)

Leaf peeping, or enjoying the fall colors, is a quintessential New England experience. In the early to mid-19th century, Hudson River School painters considered the vibrant colors of the seasons as a landscape feature that set the United States apart from Europe.

In the later 19th century, Tonalist painters who were attracted to transitional times of day and year (dawn and dusk; spring and autumn) focused on visible signs such as the turning of the leaves from green to gold. Impressionist artists at the start of the 20th century reveled in the season’s opportunities to explore light and color.

Ernest Albert, Autumnn Day, Connecticut, n.d.

Alvin Fisher , In the Nick of Time, 1848

WINTER
Unwarmed by any sunset light, the grey day darkened into night
John Greenleaf Whittier, 1866

With few exceptions, winter was not painted in the United States prior to the mid-19th century. Instead, it was a topic reserved for literature. New England writers, such as John Greenleaf Whittier, judged their ability to survive the winter as indicative of their moral and physical superiority over their southern counterparts. Still, artists largely ignored winter until the 1850s.

In 1851, Emmanuel Leutze painted George Washington Crossing the Delaware (Metropolitan Museum of Art), imbuing the historic crossing of the ice-choked river with sentiments of fortitude and endurance. Within the same decade, George Durrie completed quaint playful winter scenes, such as Seven Miles to Farmington that were popularized through Currier and Ives prints. Only then did winter constitute a viable subject matter for artists. Gradually, the Netherlandish style that Durrie employed was replaced by Tonalist and then Impressionist views of the landscape, largely without figures. The Impressionists rigorously studied the effect snow had on a landscape and the effect of light on snow. Ironically, while perceptions and images of winter have changed over the course of time, snow has always been considered emblematic of purity and virtue.

Childe Hassam , Across the Common on a Winter Evening, c. 1885-86

Bruce Crane , Snow Scene in Winter, c.1890