Connecticut, the Cradle of Impressionism: Mystic and Kent

At the burgeoning turn of the 20^th century, Connecticut offered artists beautiful rural landscapes not far from the big cities where they transformed European Impressionism into a uniquely American form. The idea was to recreate the young American students’ experience of living in the numerous French art colonies. Connecticut offered the ideal environment for six art colonies, more than any other state in the country. This three-part series presented by Tom Davies, a New Canaan resident and collector of American art for over 55 years, will explore the development of these important centers of Impressionism.

As a seaport town Mystic was a smaller community of artists, many of whom exhibited with the Old Lyme artists. Often overlooked , Mystic began seven years earlier than Old Lyme and was strongly influenced by the first artist to arrive in 1891, Charles Harold Davis. Kent was the only colony located inland in the Litchfield Hills along the Housatonic River. Legend has it the major still life artist of the day, Emil Carlsen, boarded the wrong train in New York intending to go to Old Lyme and ended up in Falls Village, discovered he liked it, and settled there.