FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 22, 2016
Lyman Allyn Art Museum
Press Contact: Rebecca Marsie, Communications Associate
860.443.2545 x112 / [email protected]
LYMAN ALLYN ART MUSEUM PRESENTS MAJOR EXHIBITION
A Good Summer’s Work: J. Alden Weir, Connecticut Impressionist
New London – The Lyman Allyn Art Museum is proud to present a major exhibition of works painted by J. Alden Weir and other American Impressionists in his circle. A Good Summer’s Work: J. Alden Weir, Connecticut Impressionist considers the unique inspiration that American Impressionists drew from the eastern Connecticut landscape.
The exhibition, curated by Dr. Anne E. Dawson, Weir scholar and Professor of Art History at Eastern Connecticut State University, brings together for the first time more than forty works from museums and private collections across the country. A Good Summer’s Work opens on May 7 and runs through September 11, 2016.
American Impressionist J. Alden Weir (1852-1919) is most often associated with his studio at Weir Farm National Historic Site in Branchville, Connecticut, yet many of the artist’s finest works were created at his little known retreat in Windham, Connecticut, where he painted each summer for nearly four decades.
Many of these paintings are inspired by the beauty of the rural landscape as well as the interplay of industry and nature in places like nearby Willimantic. Prominent artists in Weir’s circle, including John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam and Emil Carlsen, whose paintings are also featured in the exhibition, were frequent visitors to the Windham studio; both Hassam and Carlsen also painted there.
Weir painted some of his finest canvases at his home in Windham in eastern Connecticut’s picturesque ‘Quiet Corner.’ Weir’s eastern Connecticut property was one of two working farms he owned in the state. His Branchville farm, in the western part of the state, is now Weir Farm National Historic Site, Connecticut’s only national park and one of only two national parks devoted to an artist. Shedding light on Weir’s life and work in Windham, A Good Summer’s Work aims to correct an imbalance in Weir scholarship and connect new audiences with Connecticut’s artistic heritage and inspiring natural resources.
Drawing on Dr. Dawson’s extensive research, A Good Summer’s Work: J. Alden Weir, Connecticut Impressionist enriches our understanding of the rural retreat movement in Connecticut and introduces new audiences to the ways that artists have found inspiration in its landscape.
The exhibition is accompanied by a companion book, Rare Light: J. Alden Weir in Windham, CT, 1882-1919, edited by Dr. Dawson with essays contributed by other art historians. The book includes all major works from the exhibition and others. An educational website, WeirinWindham.org, and a documentary, “Love at First Sight: J. Alden Weir in Windham, CT,” created by Dr. Dawson and her students, are now available.
Programming for the exhibition will include gallery talks and lectures; a film screening of Connecticut: Season of Light, Betsy White, producer; a bus trip to Weir Farm; subsidized school field trips; adult group tours; hands-on art classes related to exhibit themes and free children’s art activities.
The Weir exhibition has been produced with generous funding from the National Endowment for the Arts; The National Park Service; The Frank Loomis Palmer Fund, Bank of America, Trustee; Hendel’s Inc.; and Americana Furniture.
The Exhibition Opening Reception will be on Friday, May 6th from 5:00 – 7:00pm. Lyman Allyn members are free and non-members are $10. Please RSVP to 860.443.2545 ext. 129.
Check the museum website at www.lymanallyn.org and Facebook page for updates and additional programming.
Tours of the exhibition are available for groups. To schedule tours, call Director of Education Mollie Clarke at 860-443-2545, ext. 110 or e-mail [email protected].
For more information or images, please contact Rebecca Marsie at 860.443.2545 x112 or at [email protected].
About the Lyman Allyn Art Museum
The Lyman Allyn Art Museum welcomes visitors from New London, southeastern Connecticut and all over the world. Established in 1926 by a gift from Harriet Allyn in memory of her seafaring father, the Museum opened the doors of its beautiful neo-classical building surrounded by 11 acres of green space in 1932. Today it presents a number of changing exhibitions each year and houses a fascinating collection of over 16,000 objects from ancient times to the present; artworks from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe, with particularly strong collections of American paintings, decorative arts and Victorian toys and doll houses.
The museum is located at 625 Williams Street, New London, Connecticut, exit 83 off I-95. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm, Sundays 1:00 – 5:00 pm; closed Mondays and major holidays. For more information call 860.443.2545, ext. 129 or visit us on Facebook or the web at: www.lymanallyn.org.