Many of the Tonalist artists included in the exhibition Dawn & Dusk: Tonalism in Connecticut frequented the artist’s colony established at Florence Griswold’s boarding house in Lyme, Connecticut – today the Florence Griswold Museum, recently rebranded as the “FloGris.” Paintings by Henry Ward Ranger and Allen Butler Talcott are on loan to the Fairfield University Art Museum for the exhibition. In a special virtual-only lecture on Wednesday, March 26 at 5 p.m., FloGris curator Amy Kurtz Lansing will discuss these and other Tonalist works in the museum’s collection. 

About the Exhibition: This exhibition explores Tonalism in the United States from the 1880s to the early 20th century, through artists from the Northeast such as George Inness, John Henry Twachtman, and John Francis Murphy. Tonalism is a transitional movement that grew out of and reacted to the Hudson River School of painting and laid the groundwork for modernism. Evocative landscapes, evoking a spiritual connection to the natural world, often painted from memory, are the primary genre of this movement. The more than fifty artworks in this exhibition are drawn from private and institutional collections.

Image: Allen Butler Talcott, Autumn, Lyme, ca. 1903, oil on canvas. Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut; 1954.13