Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Conn., is a true gem! It has a world-class art collection, along with a wonderful array of decorative arts.

The museum is located in a beautiful building and has 75,000 square feet of exhibition space. It opened in 1844, making it the oldest continually operating public art museum in the United States.

The Wadsworth family donated their land for the site, along with numerous works of art for the initial collection.

The “atheneum” part of its name is due to it originally also including a public library and historical society, making it an institution of learning.

*The Charter Oak,* Charles De Wolf Brownell, 1857. Legend has it that the Connecticut charter guaranteeing the colony’s right to self-government was hidden in the oak tree when the British government was looking to seize it. The tree fell in an 1856 storm, and this frame is made from its wood.

*Ruth Sears Bacon,* John Singer Sargent, 1887

The Hartford Colt family (of firearms fame) and Hartford native John Pierpont (J.P.) Morgan each contributed more than 1,000 objects to the collection.

A 1927 bequest from banker Frank Sumner for $1 million (roughly $20 million today) allowed the museum to pursue acquisitions of major works.

In the 1940s and 1950s, bequests from Clara Hinton Gould and Anne Parrish Titzell swelled the museum’s holdings of Hudson River School and Impressionist paintings, for which I am most thankful.

*Vase with Poppies,* Vincent van Gogh, 1886

The Wadsworth today is home to 50,000 objects ranging from “ancient Roman, Greek, and Egyptian bronzes; paintings from the Renaissance, Baroque, and French and American Impressionist eras, among others; 18th-century German and French porcelains (including Meissen and Sèvres); Hudson River School landscapes; early American clothing and decorations; early African-American art and historical artifacts; and more.”

*Self-Portrait,* Vincent van Gogh, c. 1887

*The Beach at Trouville,* Claude Monet, 1870.

I tend to focus on Impressionist paintings when I visit an art museum, but at the Wadsworth I was delighted by the amount of porcelain and earthenware on display.

There are hundreds of pieces of of French eighteenth-century porcelain, much of it thanks to J.P. Morgan, along with numerous Meissen porcelain sculpture from The Alan Shimmerman Collection. (I put together a separate post just on the porcelain and earthenware, which you can view here.)

The cover photo is Sunset Effect: The Shore at Trouville by Gustave Courbet, circa 1866.