Folk Art & Folly - Two Historic Homes and Their Collections

The Florence Griswold Museum is hosting an exhibit of Folk Art from the Fenimore Art Museum.  To compliment this show, the museum sponsored a trip to Cape Ann, Mass to visit two properties managed by Historic New England which is a comprehensive regional heritage organization committed to the preservation and cultural and architectural heritage of New England.

The first property we visited was Cogswell's Grant in Essex, Massachusetts

The Cogswell Grant house displays the American folk art collection of Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little which the couple accumulated over sixty years.  

         The Littles purchased the 165 acres Cogswell Grant farm in 1937 and carefully restored it as a home and a place to display their large collection of antiques and folk art.  The pieces in the collection continue to be displayed as the family lived with them.  Admittedly, early American furniture has never been one of my favorite art forms; however, I found myself fascinated by the many portraits that hung around the house.  For some reason these works seemed more interesting, more dynamic than those hanging in museum galleries.

I was also fascinating by the many small artifacts displayed as they would have appeared when the house was lived in.

                                                   

There are a number of paintings on the walls that were interesting because of their theme or technique.  While it added to the mood of the building to see this art hanging as a owners decided to place it; it was also frustrating because it was often difficult to get close to the art because there was an understandable prohibition against walking of the antique rugs.

It has been difficult to share pictures which can provide the full flavor of the breath and depth of the Little's collection of folk art.  Taking the Photographic tour of the Cogswell's Grant house might provide the reader with a sense of this unique historical and artistic site.

Beauport - Architectural curiosity overlooking Glouster Harbor

Henry Davis Sleeper

Beauport, the Sleeper-McCann House, Glouster, Massachusetts is also a property managed by Historic New England.

This unusual house was the summer home of Henry Davis Sleeper, America's first professional interior designer.  It served Mr. Sleeper as a place to meet with clients and as a comfortable place to entertain his wide circle of well-known guests.  It also served as a venue to display Mr. Sleeper's collection of art, curiosities, colored glass, china, and historical artifacts.  Each of the 40 rooms has a unique theme based on some aspect of his collection.  The Charles McCann family purchased the house after Mr. Sleeper's death and kept it, for the most part, as it was in Sleeper's time.

 

An absolute favorite room on mine is the book tower - every home should have such a wonderful space!

There were also wonderful spaces that overlook the harbor.

The gardens provide wonderful spaces to relax.

Edward Hopper - How it began

Although the sun was hiding behind clouds as we put the top down and headed off to the Berkshires, one can never be disappointed when the destination is Stockbridge, Massachusetts and The Norman Rockwell Museum which was hosting a wonderful exhibit entitled:

 The Unknown Hopper: Edward Hopper as Illustrator.

Every museum visitor is well aware of the wonderful, bold paintings by Edward Hopper.  However, I imagine the average museum goer is less familiar with Hopper's work as an illustrator.  Hopper began his artistic career by studying illustration in New York - his parents felt he needed to be able to earn a living.  However, he always desired to paint reality rather than fictional subjects as part of a commission.  While Hopper may not have enjoyed his long career as an illustrator of magazines, books and periodical stories, we can appreciate and enjoy the results of his talents.

Men Seated ay Cafe Table

Boy and the Moon

Night Shadows

As impressive as the illustrations are, I must admit I am still drawn to Hopper's paintings - maybe I just love the familiar images.  The National Galley has created a wonderful documentary film on  Edward Hopper to compliment their 2007 exhibition of his creative life. The Whitney Museum in New York City hold many Hopper's works and it is understandable that one wants to revisit some of those wonderful works.  Enjoy!

Light at two Lights, 1927

Corn Hill, 1930

Early Sunday Morning, 1930

New York Interior, 1921

Norman Rockwell and his Art on Display

 

The reason for traveling to Stockbridge was to see the Hopper exhibition and yet it seems appropriate to make a few remarks on Norman Rockwell's art so nicely display in his well designed museum.  Many of Rockwell's oils delightfully document a version of the American experience.  One wonders whether it is appropriate to use the word document when referring to his art.

Below are a sampling of old and new favorites.

Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas

Art Critic

The museum has developed a timeline which outlines Rockwell's artistic career.  It is well worth the time to check it out.  

As you wander though the galleries you can't help but wonder, if life was ever as simple and innocent as Rockwell's art implies.  However, when one enters the central gallery and see the large canvases  depicting the Four Freedoms it is impossible not wonder what happened ...  how is it possible that a nation founded on that vision came to inherit the government we currently have.

The Art and Life of Anna Held Audette

After visiting Vision and Inspiration at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut,  I was content and maybe a little hungry, so I almost ignored the small gallery near the exit which announced an exhibit entitled The Way We Worked.  I am so very glad I did not!

Inside this small gallery there were actually two displays one which explored how work became "a central element in American culture", while the other part of the exhibit was a sampling of the paintings by Anna Held Audette, a Connecticut artist and educator who before her death in 2013 painted industrial ruins and abandoned machinery.  It is always extraordinarily gratifying to see the work of a women artist in the spotlight especially when the work is so interesting and unique.

 

Ship II, 2011

American

Scrap IX

 Anna Held Audette

Haven and Inspiration: The Kent Art Colony

Like most Connecticut museum goers are well aware of the Old Lyme Art Colony supported by Florence Griswold.  When I traveled to the Bruce Museum I learned more about Cos Cob Art Colony.  To my joy and surprise, when I discovered the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, I was introduced to the Kent Art Colony.  Before exploring the museum, a few comments on the museum itself.  It was founded in 1877 as The Mattatuck Historical Society to server the ten-town region surrounding Waterbury. The museum has curated historical artifacts and Connecticut-based art as well as serving as a community center.  One of the great benefits of my summer of art exploration is that I have discovered well-run small museums like the one found off the Waterbury green.

Haven and Inspiration: The Kent Art Colony is the exhibit that drew me to this museum. I must admit that I never heard of the Kent Art Colony and was familiar with only a few of the members.  Kent, Connecticut was on the rail line and so artists could live in Kent and enjoy the benefits of country living and still commute to New York for work. The colony flourished between 1910 and 1930 and the members included Rex Brasher (1869-1960) Eliot Candee Clark (1883-1980), Carl Hirschberg (1854-1923), Francis Luis Mora (1874-1940), G. Laurence Nelson (1887-1978), Spencer Baird Nichols (1875-1950), Robert Nisbet (1879-1961), Willard Paddock (1873-1956) and Frederick Judd Waugh (1861-1940).  Founding members of The Kent Colony formed the Kent Art Association in 1923.

 Here is sampling of the artists from the Kent Art Colony.

Robert Nisbet (1879 - 1961) 

Two Women by a Lake, 1917, oil on canvas

 Seven Mile River, oil on canvas

Following are a sample of delightful works by artists were unknown to me until my day in Waterbury.

G. Laurence Nelson (1887-19780)

Portrait of my Wife and Beatrice

Flower field girls

Spencer Nichols (1875 - 1950)

 Dawn on Bald Mountain

Studio Hill, oil on panel

Frederick Waugh (1861 -1940)

Breaking Waves

 

Still Life

 F. Luis Mora

Picnic in Kent Fall, 1930

Flowers of the Field, 1913

 Going to exhibitions like Haven and Inspiration serves a dual function - the simply pleasure of enjoying art well created and learning something new about the artists and the times and conditions in which they work.  This exhibit was well designed and the complementary video was interesting and very informative. 

National Museum of Women in the Arts - A Virtual Tour

As much as I have been enjoying my recent visits to New England museums, at some point I  realized that there were very few women artists in any exhibit I visited.  This reality seemed true almost regardless of the nature or theme of the art on display. This made me wish I could visit the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC.  Suddenly, it came to me -  this is the virtual age, so this blog post represents my virtual visit to a very special museum.

As I started my virtual tour, I found it is very different experience to wander through a museum with your fingers than with your feet; however, I realized that learning to effectively visit museum virtual would open up an extraordinary experience to visit art collected through out the world -- what an amazing possibility!

The National Museum of Women in the Arts is such a unique museum; it seems logical to start with a few comments on its history.  The question for this museum is the same one that motivated me create this page, "where are the women artists?"  This question motivated Wilhelmina Cole Holladay and Wallace F. Holladay to make women artist their collecting criteria starting in 1960.  After 20 years, Wilhelmina made her collection the core of the permanent holdings of this new, important institution which opened in the spring 1987.  The following video capture the essence of the NMWA mission https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3we9ItJy50

Whenever one enters a museum, the question is always "Where to begin?"   The NMWA's permanent collection boasts 4,500 artworks by more than 1,000 women artists - both well known and lesser known.   Some of the artists represented are Mary Cassatt, Lavinia Fontana, Clara Peeters, and Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun as well as modern and contemporary artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Chakaia Booker, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Joana Vasconcelos.  I started my virtual tour by sampling works from the permanent collection (http://www.nmwa.org/explore/collection-highlights) which is conveniently arranged by century.  I immediately clicked on 18th - 19th century because this period is familiar.

Marguerite Gerard, Prelude to a Concert, ca 18810

Berthe Morisot, 1885. The Cage

Then I moved on to the 20th century and contemporary art works to look for new favorites.

Elizabeth Adela Stanhope Forbes, Will-o'-the-Wisp, ca. 1900

Alma Woodsey Thomas, Iris, Tulips, Jonquils, and Crocuses, 1969

Joan Mitchell, Sale Neige, 1980

M. L. Van Nice, Swiss Army Book, 1990

Hollis Sigler, To Kiss the Spirits: Now, This Is What It Is Really Like, 1993

This virtual visit to the National Museum of Women Artists fulfilled my desire to see the artistic work by women from around the world.  It also convinced me that the doors of most museums are open to me.  What a wonderful discovered and extraordinary opportunity for future "museuming".