Today I set off on an overnight excursion to Connecticut to visit the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme. It's a fascinating place, and I spent the whole afternoon there. I'd been there before, but not for many years.
Florence Griswold was a single woman who inherited her family's large house, but had no way to support herself and the house other than selling flowers and vegetables from her garden. She decided to take in boarders. In the summer of 1899 an artist boarded there and liked the quiet pastoral landscape around Old Lyme, which is on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River. The next summer he brought some artist friends with him, and a summer art colony began, based around Miss Florence's house. It flourished for many years as one of the major summer colonies of the American Impressionists, and Miss Florence was a beloved figure among the artists. She had found her calling.
The Florence Griswold house is restored to about 1910, the height of the art colony days. This still life is in a room arranged to represent an artist's bedroom/studio, although mostly they painted en plein air.
I love the Florence Griswold Museum and the wonderful New England story of Miss Florence and the artists. The turn-of-the-century years are a period I really connect with.
I really enjoyed reading the history of Florence Griswold and the artist's colony there - what a fascinating place this must be. Thanks for sharing this.
It is a wonderful story and a wonderful museum. I highly recommend it if you're ever back along the Connecticut shore. There's the house, the new museum building in the back where the changing exhibitions are, the restored garden, William Chadwick's studio in a small wooden building on the property, and a lovely café on the porch overlooking the Lieutenant River, a small tributary of the Connecticut River. It's still remarkably quiet and peaceful there on the extensive grounds of the museum.