Florence Griswold Museum
96 Lyme Street
Old Lyme, Connecticut 06371
Situated along the picturesque Lieutenant River in Old Lyme, Connecticut, the Florence Griswold Museum embodies the artistic spirit of its legacy as the home of the Lyme Art Colony. From the impressive Georgian architecture of the home of namesake Florence Griswold, to the light-filled and modern spaces of the Krieble Gallery, to the rolling landscape of our 13-acre site, the Florence Griswold is a truly special place that is privileged to serve as the home of American Impressionism.
Image Credit: Harry Hoffman’s “View of the Griswold House”, 1908, Florence Griswold Museum, GIft of the Family of Mrs. Nancy B. Krieble
Plan your visit: https://florencegriswoldmuseum.org/visit/plan-your-visit/
New Visitors Guide: https://florencegriswoldmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/FGM_VisitorsGuide_2019_12x11_digital.pdf
New Exhibits:
From Art Colony to Connecticut Collection: Highlights from the Florence Griswold Museum
To increase access to the Museum’s wonderful artworks, the Niblack Gallery in our Robert and Nancy Krieble Gallery will be dedicated to a long-term installation of selections from the permanent collection. From Art Colony to Connecticut Collection presents highlights in three thematic clusters.
Link to exhibit: https://florencegriswoldmuseum.org/from-art-colony-to-connecticut-collection/
~Community: the Lyme Art Colony and Beyond includes artworks by Matilda Browne, William Chadwick, Childe Hassam, Willard Metcalf, Bessie Potter Vonnoh and others that attest to the creative community centered around Florence Griswold’s riverside boardinghouse circa 1900.
~Connecticut and the Environment features paintings, sculpture, video, and material culture objects from the permanent collection that encourage us to consider how artists, their clientele, and the societies from which they sprang from the 19th century to the present, viewed and interacted with nature.
~As a museum founded by artists who first came to this place to channel inspiration into creativity over a century ago, we honor The Creative Spark in the exhibition’s third thematic grouping. Using both artworks and objects from our collection of artists’ tools, this section encourages visitors to consider how artists tap into and express creativity.
Fun & Games? Leo Jensen’s Pop Art
Organized in collaboration with Jensen’s widow, artist Dalia Ramanauskas, and with Lyman Allyn Art Museum, which will present its own companion exhibition on Jensen at the same time, Fun & Games will be the first in decades to consider Jensen’s playful yet probing art in depth.
Pop artist Leo Jensen (1926–2019) turned a winking eye on America, producing an irreverent art that is nevertheless serious in its cultural observations. Known best regionally for his bronze frog sculptures on the Thread City Crossing bridge in Willimantic, Jensen infused his work with humor as well as thought-provoking reflections on modern American society.
An American Place: The Art Colony at Old Lyme
Ongoing Exhibition Florence Griswold House second floor gallery
During the first two decades of the 20th century, the village of Old Lyme, Connecticut was the setting for one of the largest and most significant art colonies in America.
Centered in the boardinghouse of Miss Florence Griswold, the colony attracted many leading artists – Henry Ward Ranger, Childe Hassam, and Willard Metcalf among them – who were in the vanguard of the Tonalist and Impressionist movements. Drawn to Old Lyme by its natural beauty, they discovered an “old” New England setting that was, as one observer noted, “expressive of the quiet dignity of other days.”
Here was a country retreat for artists where, in Metcalf’s words, “every day is so in line with work.” Interacting with each other and with the community, the more than 200 artists of the colony produced an impressive body of work, which achieved renown in its day and still calls attention to the enduring qualities of the rural New England setting.
In 2021 we celebrated the Centennial of the Lyme Art Association Gallery. In August 1921, the Lyme Art Association (LAA) opened a permanent gallery in Old Lyme designed by architect Charles A. Platt. This exhibition commemorates the centennial of the building, which was conceived of and developed by artists who had formed a colony based next door at Florence Griswold’s boardinghouse beginning in 1900. The Lyme Art Association’s inaugural exhibition in the gallery was also its twentieth annual show, which featured the work of Lyme Art Colony painters, past and present. It served as a reflection upon the colony’s first two decades and as a representation of contemporary directions in their art as Americans considered their identity in the aftermath of World War I.
Visit the Artists’ Trail, a half-mile walk around the Museum’s riverfront landscape and gardens. Check our website and social media (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) to stay up-to-date about the Museum’s status and enjoy beautiful images, on-line exhibitions, fun facts, and behind-the-scenes videos.
Exhibitions: https://florencegriswoldmuseum.org/exhibitions/
Calendar/Events: https://florencegriswoldmuseum.org/calendar/
Take a Virtual Tour of the Museum: https://www.capturepics.com/3d-model/nothing-more-american-immigration-sanctuary-and-community-an-exhibition-by-matthew-leifheit/skinned/
Take a Virtual Tour of the Florence Griswold House: https://www.capturepics.com/3d-model/florence-griswold-house/skinned/
Link to the all exhibitions: https://florencegriswoldmuseum.org/exhibitions/
Link to the website: https://florencegriswoldmuseum.org
Image Credits: florencegriswoldmuseum.org unless otherwise noted.