High Thinking and Low Living

Historical Background on the Lyme Art Colony

The Lyme Art Colony was "just the place for high thinking and low living."
-- Artist Childe Hassam in a letter dated July 3, 1905

Old Lyme, Connecticut was the center of a community of American artists who created one of the country's best-known art colonies that thrived during the early decades of the 20th century. William Gerdts, in his landmark book, American Impressionism (Abbeville Press, 1984), referred to the Lyme Art Colony as "the most famous Impressionist-oriented art colony in America." The American art colony movement flourished after the Civil War until the 1930s. Based upon French precedents like the famed artist communities of Barbizon and Giverny, colonies like the one at Old Lyme began to develop across America. These picturesque retreats were outside the hustle and bustle of urban centers and provided painters with bountiful subject matter, inexpensive lodgings, and the camaraderie of other artists. Employing a variety of styles, the Old Lyme artists created works that celebrated village, farm, and rural life and conveyed a sense of place distinct to southern New England. The Lyme Art Colony fostered an identity for both the town and the state of Connecticut as a crucible for the development of Impressionism in America.

( Childe Hassam painting en plein air, c. 1903, Florence Griswold Museum. Hassam painting: Childe Hassam painting by his studio on the grounds of the Florence Griswold House. Hassam arrived in Old Lyme in 1903, and brought with him the style of Impressionism and painting outside, seen here.)

( Will Howe Foote painting en plein air, c. 1910, Florence Griswold Museum. Foote painting en plein air: Will Howe Foote on the grounds of the Griswold House.)