March 25, 2020

A regular visitor to the Old Lyme Art Colony, Willard Metcalf had initially followed Childe Hassam there in 1903, and he spent time at other artist retreats in New England as well. He studied in France in the 1880s, where he was the first American to paint at Giverny, France, the home of Claude Monet.

Interested in learning more? Check out this short Digital Docent video, narrated by Curator Tanya Pohrt, highlighting Metcalf’s “The Green Meadow” painting in our American Perspectives Gallery.

April 2, 2020

Up next for our Digital Docent series is a discussion with our docent Frank about Beatrice Cuming’s “Saturday Night: New London” painting.

Cuming was born in Brooklyn, studied art in Paris and lived in Tunisia before settling in New London, Connecticut in 1934. Cuming described her arrival in New London as a sort of accidental love story. One day she was taking the train to Boston and it stopped in New London. During a 15-minute wait, she got off the train and began to explore downtown. Supposedly she was so taken with the area, she never got back on the train! Her art flourished here due to the financial support from the federal government’s New Deal art programs. Cuming also taught art classes in New London Public Schools and at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum. Several of her paintings feature industrial landscapes from Electric Boat across the Thames River.