The Westport Library Resource Guides: Westport's Artistic Legacy: About

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Westport's Artistic Heyday Is Recalled. Paul Bass. New York Times (1923-); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 14 Apr 1985: CN24. (Historical NY Times)

Art: 'Westport Artists of Past' A Frame of Historic Reference. Hilton Kramer. New York Times (1923-); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 18 June 1976: 63. (Historical NY Times)

Westport: Connecticut Town With Arts History; Scenic Location, Proximity to New York City Wins Fans. Lefkowitz, Melanie . Wall Street Journal (Online) ; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]06 July 2013. (Proquest)

The Draw of a Mail-Order Art School. New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Mar 20, 2014 (Proquest)

Westport Looks to Expand Reputation as an Arts Town. Westport News, August 11, 2023 (NewsBank)

About

Robert Lambdin once said that when he moved to Westport in 1918 there were twenty or so artists living here. In 1924 a local headline proclaimed, "Westport is Truly Getting to Be the Home of Many Famous Artists." By 1934 the count - as proclaimed in a special edition of another local newspaper - was seventy-eight painters, sculptors, etchers and designers, "including many of international fame." Another half dozen or so lived in Weston.

In the 1940's the renown of the local colony was such that the dynamic Albert Dorne decided that Westport was the place to locate his art correspondence school, and that the name to give the school was "Famous Artists." The movement of artists to Westport and Weston had reached flood stage. And still they came, and continue to come. Why here? How did it start?

In the 1890's many of the country's well-established artists worked in New York, clustered in convenient neighborhoods like Union Square and the 23rd Street area, a warren of studios in those days. New York was where artists exhibited and taught and sold their work. The city had become the center of commercial creativity. And it was a mecca for art students.

The established artists who taught and worked in New York looked for summer locations away from the heat of the city, but not too far away. The logical places would be along the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad line. The artists wanted to be able to travel to and from New York City within a few hours. They also wanted inexpensive living accommodations for themselves and their students. And they wanted to get "back to nature" by working out of doors - en plein air - in the Impressionist modes which had recently captivated the American art world. Cool, beautiful, convenient and low in cost - these were the criteria.

Any number of Connecticut towns might have met these criteria. There is, however, another factor in the development of a colony of artists. Artists tend to be drawn to a place by the presence of others whom they like and respect. Thus the first of the Connecticut shore colonies, located in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich, grew up in the 1890's around the leading American Impressionist John H. Twachtman. Seventy miles further up the coats, the early 1900's saw the establishment of a second colony at Old Lyme, primarily because of two men: Henry Ward Ranger, a prominent landscape painter and colorful personality, and then the equally dominant and more highly renowned Childe Hassam, who displaced Ranger as leader and pushed the Old Lyme group decisively in the direction of American Impressionism.

The gathering of artists in the Westport-Weston area began before 1900. The artist Angus MacDonall recalled that in 1900 he visited an artist friend who had purchased a farmhouse and settled in Westport. MacDonall would eventually become a permanent resident of the town. The artist Neil Mitchill is said to have been in Westport before 1900. Other early arrivals include Edmund M. Ashe, John N. Marchannd and George Hand Wright.

Westport had the basic requirements: convenient railroad transportation, affordable accommodations, beautiful countryside, and, as in Cos Cob and Old Lyme, the influence of well-known and respected artists. Continue reading from A Community of Artists, 9-10.