Exploring American Art in New Britain

Numerous prominent arts organizations in the United States trace their roots to the turn of the century, a moment of turbulent excitement on the nation’s cultural scene. Connecticut’s New Britain Museum of American Art is one such institution. Founded in 1903, it is considered to be the first museum dedicated exclusively to the acquisition of American art. In its galleries, a wide ranging collection tells a broad story of art made in and about the United States.

While the museum has holdings that span from the Colonial period to Contemporary, some of the most compelling areas of its collection are those that chart the realities of art being made around the time of its founding. American artists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were newly emboldened to create artworks that were in their own voice and reflective of their own concerns. In a period prior to widely accessible art education in the United States, many of these artists traveled to, and studied in, Europe and the evidence of that is displayed in New Britain’s galleries.

A contemporary painting by Titus Kaphar (far right) reflects on an earlier piece by artist Ralph Earl.

One standout sample of an American in Paris comes from Childe Hassam’s ambitious 1887 painting Le Jour du Grand Prix. In his scintillating treatment of the scene, Hassam reduces the iconic Arch de Triomphe to the edge of the canvas while dedicating the bulk of the image to the street, the trees, the people, and the atmosphere. The recipient of the 1888 Paris Salon’s Gold Medal, Le Jour du Grand Prix was also shown at the influential World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. A highlight of New Britain’s collection, it is emblematic of where the interests of American artists laid in the late nineteenth century. It exemplifies the thrill of urban life, the drama and spectacle of a metropolis, and, of course, the cultural inspiration drawn from European travel.

Childe Hassam’s 1887 Le Jour du Grand Prix is a highlight of the museum’s late nineteenth century holdings.

Beyond Hassam, other paintings from the likes of John Sloan, Everett Shinn, and Gifford Beal continue the trend of Americans’ passion for urban scenes and city life in the first decades of the twentieth century. As Americans poured into cities in pursuit of economic opportunities, artists turned their collective gaze toward the benefits and ills of life in places like New York. Nearby examples by Maurice Prendergrast and Rockwell Kent are more bucolic but no less engaging, and exemplify the ways in which avante-garde approaches to art-making inspired American artists. An immersive installation of murals originally created by Thomas Hart Benton for The Whitney Museum exhibits the aspirations of the Regionalist School in American art and bridges the concerns of Americans both urban and rural.

An immersive installation of Thomas Hart Benton’s Arts of Life in America mural cycle, originally designed for 10 West 8th Street in New York, the first home of The Whitney Museum.

In upstairs galleries, an exhibition on view through October 29, 2023 focuses on highlights from the Museum’s collection of Post-War and Contemporary Art. This show is broad and offers everything from explorations of Contemporary Realism to samplings from Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism. The variety is a celebration of the mixed interests of American artists in the decades after the Second World War and breaks down often monolithic art historical storylines.

An installation view of a current exhibition focused on Post-War and Contemporary Art.

Many of the museum’s sleek and well-appointed galleries date to an early 2000’s expansion project spearheaded by Boston’s Ann Beha Architects. The adjoining Landers House, which was the original venue for the museum was restored in 2021 and currently hosts an exhibition of 1970’s portraits honoring Black women who were active community leaders in the New Britain region. The entire complex hugs Walnut Hill Park. An early work of Frederick Law Olmstead, the space was designed by the nation’s preeminent landscape architect of the nineteenth century, who is best known for shaping Central Park but left a lasting impact on many public spaces.

The elegant library of the museum’s Landers House.

In addition to its permanent collection, which includes strong holdings in expected areas like the Hudson River School and American Illustration, the museum also mounts rotating exhibitions. Through September 3, 2023 it is hosting a significant show of work by photographer Walter Wick, creator of the I Spy books series, which will appeal to families. Other exhibitions on view probe topics as far afield as Shaker design and Post-War and Contemporary art. 

A view from one of the museum’s current rotating exhibitions, focused on Walter Wick.

For those interested in experiencing a primer of the story of art in the United States, the New Britain Museum of American Art offers compelling opportunities to consider the legacy of visual art in the context of the American experience.

The New Britain Museum of American Art is located at 56 Lexington Street in New Britain Connecticut. It is open Wednesday - Sunday from 10am - 5pm each day and Thursdays from 10am - 8pm. Admission is $15 for adults. For more details and to plan your visit, go to www.nbmaa.org.

The New Britain Museum of American Art’s campus at 56 Lexington Street in New Britain Connecticut.

Destination: The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

It had been about a year since my last museum visit, until this past weekend when I made a visit to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1842, and open to the public since 1844, the Wadsworth is the oldest continuously operating public art museum in the country. It has strong holdings in American art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as in European paintings. It was the first museum in the United States to buy a painting by Caravaggio. His St. Francis in Ecstasy remains a major draw. The Wadsworth is not just a particularly good smaller museum, but also a worthy destination for a reintroduction to the world of museums in the time of Covid-19. 

At an hour and a half, the drive from Providence to Hartford is a picturesque one. The route linking the capital cities of Connecticut and Rhode Island runs through kind of small and charming towns for which New England is renowned. At certain points the roadside becomes thickly dotted with fine Federal houses bedecked in Doric-columned porches. Occasionally, a ramshackle red barn is silhouetted against the backdrop of a rolling hill as the road curves through the shallow valleys of Eastern Connecticut. The snow of the last few weeks is still clinging to the roofs of houses, and barns, and general stores, whose eves are lined with perfect icicles. In a parallel universe, the whole scene doubtlessly lives on the lid of a cookie tin in some grandmother’s cupboard. When I arrive at Hartford, the city emerges almost as a surprise, startling me out of the idyll at the end of this country road.

The Wadsworth is situated in the shadow of the Travelers Insurance Tower in the heart of the city’s downtown. Comprised of five interconnected structures in varying styles, the museum is a labyrinthine collection of galleries, each with its own distinct personality. In 2015, the facility reopened after a multi-year renovation effort, which added thousands of square feet of exhibition space and saw the reinstallation of swaths of the museum’s collection. The result remains, some five years on, an impressive feat of reimagination. The Wadsworth, which has a collection in the range of 50,000 objects, is a museum of diverse and beautiful spaces, which are rarely at odds with each other. 

As of this writing, the museum is offering free admission to all guests, and is organizing visits with timed ticketed slots. Upon my arrival over the weekend, temperatures were taken and visitors were instructed to follow the paths laid out by directional arrows on the floors of the galleries. At certain points, specific paintings were paired with vinyl dots adhered to the floor to indicate where visitors should stand to look at a work whilst also maintaining social distance. Most of the museum-goers I encountered were considerate and well behaved, with Wadsworth staff providing courteous assistance and direction. As a first experience of museum life in this unusual time, the museum’s policies felt well thought out and geared toward visitor safety. It was reassuring of the potential for cultural life to return to something we all might recognize in the coming months.

The Wadsworth’s 1842 entrance is defined by its imposing Gothic tracery and rooftop crenellation. In the background, The Travelers Insurance Tower looms. Photo by the author.

Walking through the Helen and Harry Gray Court, the museum’s original building and grand main entrance, one is immediately entranced by Sol Lewitt’s Wall Drawing Number 793 C, a massive mural that encompasses the space and draws the eye up a storey. From there, arrows guide visitors into contemporary galleries, which were in between exhibitions on my visit, and through to The Avery Memorial. Constructed in 1934 and billed as the first museum wing built in the International Style in the nation, this space exhibits an array of objects and is dedicated to dealer, collector, and museum donor Samuel P. Avery. Around a central court surmounted by a gracious skylight, its three floors of galleries feature three-quarter-height walls, which are punctuated by Juliet balconies that look down onto a central fountain. It is a light-filled and buoyant and unusual assemblage of exhibition spaces, featuring a strong collection of work. One standout is a particularly stunning Georgia O’Keeffe painting dating to 1929. The subject is the brilliant night sky of New Mexico seen through the sinuous limbs of a ponderosa pine.

Georgia O'Keeffe, The Lawrence Tree, 1929, Oil on canvas, 31 x 40 inches, The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1981.23

For the Valentine’s Day Weekend, the museum hired a harpist who played contemporary classics while I milled through a gallery filled with treasures from the Hudson River School. Getting lost in the incandescent horizon of a Thomas Cole while strains of Elton John’s Your Song filter through the gallery is the type of surreal experience that can only be had in real life in a museum, and I was grateful for it. Later, while I examined the museum’s ruminative Caravaggio of St. Francis receiving the stigmata, echoes of applause could be heard for the musical performance concluding galleries away. 

At the heart of the intimate but rambling museum, the Morgan Great Hall holds an impressive salon style installation of European paintings. This is the prototypical art museum one imagines as emerging out of central casting, and gives viewers a sense of the substantiality of the permanent collection. Smaller galleries that circumscribe this space and others hold more specific treasures including a jewel-like portrait of an angel by Fra Angelico. Upstairs, paintings by the likes of Delacroix, Ingres, Rousseau, Monet and van Gogh illuminate later moments in art making. Another particular bright spot is William Holman Hunt’s dazzling interpretation of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Lady of Shallott”.

William Holman Hunt, The Lady of Shalott, c. 1888–1905, Oil on canvas, 74 x 57 inches, The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1961.470

A number of laudable temporary exhibitions are currently on view at the museum. One show highlights the rhythmic paintings of the Iranian-born artist Ali Banisadr, which draw their compositions in part from the phenomenon of synesthesia. Another exhibition focuses on the ancient inspirations that shaped the Art Deco sculptures of Paul Manship, whose work will be recognized by anyone who has visited the artist’s famous Prometheus at Rockefeller Center in New York. Nearby, the museum’s Amistad Center for Art and Culture shares engaging works that in the museum’s description “document the experience, expressions, and history of people of African American heritage”.

A day trip to the Wadsworth is always a delight and it is always worth the beautiful drive. Particularly now, as many of us are just beginning to cautiously dip our toes back into the types of experiences we once foolishly took for granted, a visit to a museum of such digestible scope and scale is a renewing experience. One of my favorite, if overused, quotes is John Keats’s assertion that “a thing of beauty is a joy forever”. The Wadsworth’s collection is indeed a joy – and one which is more compelling now than ever.

To learn more about the Wadsworth, visit their website at www.thewadsworth.org. 

Note: Current guidelines in the State of Connecticut permit visitors from only Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey to visit without quarantining. Be sure to apprise yourself of the most up to date health guidelines before planning your visit and be sure to act responsibly when making such a trip.