Five Facts from Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut

The Florence Griswold Museum portrays an extraordinary era in our nation’s history, when a group of the country’s most accomplished artists gathered at Florence Griswold’s boardinghouse to record their impressions of the countryside surrounding Old Lyme. Inspired by the diverse natural beauty of the local landscape, artists flocked to this pastoral spot on the banks of the Lieutenant River and forged a flourishing artist colony that would become America’s best-known center of Impressionist painting.

By the late 1890s, the museum’s namesake, Florence Griswold (1850-1937) was nearly 50 years old and virtually alone in the world. As the youngest child of a once prosperous sea captain, she outlived her parents and siblings and faced the future as an unmarried woman with few economic prospects. She inherited the family home, along with its debts.

To survive, she chose to take in boarders. Fortunately, during the summer of 1899, one of her visitors was Henry Ward Ranger, a New York artist looking to establish an art colony in the New England countryside. Under Ranger's leadership, Old Lyme was, for a time, designated the "American Barbizon." With the arrival of Childe Hassam in 1903, the colony's focus shifted from Tonalism to Impressionism and became known as the most famous Impressionist colony in America, the "American Giverny."

In the years to come, other artists such as Willard Metcalf, Matilda Browne and William Chadwick would transform the stately late-Georgian house into the home of the Lyme Art Colony. Inspired by the beauty of the New England countryside and charmed by Miss Florence's gracious hospitality, the colony flourished for more than three decades. As Hassam put it, this was just the place for "high thinking and low living." Here, some of the most noted names in American Impressionism would create many important paintings.

Five Facts about the Florence Griswold Museum:

Survival: After the death of their parents, Florence and her sister, Adele, lived alone in the Griswold House, making ends meet by taking in boarders and selling plants and vegetables from their garden.

The Holy House: Reserved largely for professional artists, a stay with Miss Florence was so esteemed that the house was irreverently nicknamed the “Holy House” by the many art students who arrived each summer and took lodgings in private homes nearby.

Painted Wall Panels: The practice of painting on the walls and doors of the Griswold House was begun by Henry Ward Ranger and carried out over a number of years by more than 30 of the colony’s artists. There are 38 painted panels in the dining room alone.

Presidential Visit: Woodrow Wilson was one of the few non-artists to stay at the Griswold House. He first visited in 1905, with his wife and daughters, and returned again in 1908, 1909 and 1910.

American Art Collection Expands: In 2001, the Hartford Steam Boiler and Inspection Company gave its entire holding of American art — 188 paintings and two sculptures — to the Florence Griswold Museum. The collection showcases Connecticut's importance to American art history from the late 18th to the early 20th centuries.

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Photos top to bottom: All photos courtesy of the Florence Griswold Museum. Florence Griswold House. Miss Florence. Childe Hassam Painting. Artists on the Front Porch. Painted Panels in Dining Room. Krieble Gallery Interior.