Rare Light: J. Alden Weir in Windham, Connecticut, 1882–1919

By Anne E. Dawson

Winner of the Ruth Emery Award (2018)

Rare Light is a collection of essays exploring little known facets of the life and career of a major American Impressionist painter. J. Alden Weir (1852–1919) painted some of his finest canvases while living in Windham in eastern Connecticut's picturesque "Quiet Corner," and this rural location played a crucial role in Weir's artistic development. The four essays that comprise this book offer in-depth contextual information about the architecture, culture, environment, and history of the region, allowing us to see Connecticut as it appeared in Weir's lifetime. Interweaving photos, paintings, and letters—some never before published—Rare Light documents the artist's sense of Windham as a place for social gatherings, physical and psychic rest, and art making. Taken together, the essays celebrate the interconnectedness of art, architecture, family, history, and place. Includes essays by Charles Burlingham Jr., Rachel Carley, Anne E. Dawson, and Jamie Eves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
• Release date: Mar 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9780819576187

Book preview

A DRIFTLESS CONNECTICUT SERIES BOOK

This book is a 2016 selection in the Driftless Connecticut Series, for an outstanding book in any field on a Connecticut topic or written by a Connecticut author.

rare

J. ALDEN WEIR in Windham, Connecticut, 1882–1919

light

Edited by Anne E. Dawson

With essays by Charles Burlingham, Jr.,

Rachel Carley, and Jamie H. Eves

Wesleyan University Press | Middletown, Connecticut

Wesleyan University Press

Middletown CT 06459

www.wesleyan.edu/wespress

© 2016 Wesleyan University Press

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

Designed by Mindy Basinger Hill

Typeset in Fanwood

The Driftless Connecticut Series is funded by the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

Library of Congress

Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rare light: J. Alden Weir in Windham, Connecticut, 1882–1919 / edited by Anne E. Dawson; with essays by Charles Burlingham, Jr., Rachel Carley, and Jamie H. Eves.

pages     cm

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8195-7617-0 (pbk.: alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-8195-7618-7 (ebook)

1. Weir, Julian Alden, 1852–1919—Criticism and interpretation.

2. Weir, Julian Alden, 1852–1919—Homes and haunts—Connecticut—Windham.

3. Windham (Conn.)—History.

4. Windham (Conn.)—In art. I. Dawson, Anne E. (Anne Elizabeth), 1956– editor.

ND237.W4R37 2016

759.13—dc23

2015026787

5   4   3   2   1

Cover illustration: J. Alden Weir, The Shadow of My Studio, Windham, c. 1890–1910.

Oil on canvas, 30 1/4 x 25 1/4. Private Collection.

THIS BOOK WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF

The Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

Charles Burlingham, Jr.

The Connecticut State University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors

The Lyman Allyn Art Museum

Weir Farm National Historic Site

[B]ut still I hope by this hour the clouds have all dispersed & the bright new quarter of the moon that is now shining is visible also at dear old Windham. Oh, how I would like to be there to walk with you through the large old trees that stand like sentinels in the ancient homestead of the Taintors. Still, I will hope before long to enjoy … those lovely walks & watch the long & pale shadows, varied by the different forms of the cedars & the pines, while the rare light of tiny little stars will cause the moonlight to be less wonderful.

J. ALDEN WEIR TO ANNA DWIGHT BAKER, MAY 23, 1882

CONTENTS

Preface Anne E. Dawson ix

Acknowledgments Anne E. Dawson xiii

List of Abbreviations xvii

ONE Family Stories Charles Burlingham, Jr. 1

TWO J. Alden Weir in Windham, Connecticut, 1882–1919 Anne E. Dawson 9

THREE Eastern Connecticut Landscapes and the Environment, 1882–1919: The Pastoral as Middle Ground Jamie H. Eves 91

FOUR A House Unlocked: The History of the Baker-Weir Homestead Rachel Carley 119

Selected Works Painted by Weir while Residing in Windham 137

Bibliography 141

Contributors 147

Index 149

PREFACE

Anne E. Dawson

This book is the result of fortuitous coincidence that introduced me to the fascinating and largely untold story of J. Alden Weir’s personal and creative life in Windham, Connecticut. In the fall of 2009, my friend and colleague Elizabeth Peterson, then director of Eastern Connecticut State University’s Akus Gallery, brought to my attention the fact that the famous American Impressionist painter had lived and worked in Windham and was buried in the Windham Center Cemetery, located only a few miles from the university. As I began to investigate the topic, I soon realized that Weir’s relationship with Windham was a fascinating and multilayered story that few people in the town — or Connecticut at large — knew about. And, while a number of American Impressionist scholars understood the importance of Windham for Weir’s career, the full story had yet to be told. My preliminary Weir research led me to discover other important histories about this region that merited study. Willimantic, home of the university where I teach, and now a component of Windham, was once one of the most important industrial centers in the world. Windham Center — which I had traveled through, and admired, for many years on my commute to campus — was home to residents who played a vital role in the history of early America. The whole of Windham Center, filled with wonderful historic houses and a charming village green, is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Yet the social and architectural history of this important place had not been appropriately researched and published. I became increasingly intrigued by the stories of Weir, Willimantic, and Windham and the connections among them. I wanted to uncover and celebrate these histories and, in so doing, draw attention to a historically significant but underappreciated region of Connecticut.

The four chapters that comprise this book recount J. Alden Weir’s multi-faceted life in eastern Connecticut, and simultaneously open a window onto the social, environmental, historical, and architectural contexts in which those activities took place.

In chapter 1, Charles Burlingham, Jr., Weir’s only surviving grandchild, provides a personal perspective on growing up surrounded by the legacy of one of America’s most distinguished artistic families. Burlingham, born after Weir’s death, came to know his grandfather through the reminiscences imparted by his mother and her siblings and the numerous paintings that covered the walls of his home. An enthusiastic researcher and guardian of his family’s history, Burlingham participated in the efforts that succeeded in preserving Weir’s western Connecticut farm in Branchville (Wilton) as the first and only national historic park in Connecticut. His chapter includes information from his own research as well as family anecdotes that show us the personal side of Weir — his role as a parent, for example — and remind us that all artistic production is grounded in the human and the ordinary.

In chapter 2, I tell the story of Weir’s life in Windham, outlining in detail his artistic and personal activities. I rely on the extensive letters in various Weir archives to chronicle the artist’s sense of Windham as a place for social gatherings, physical and psychic rest, and art-making. Among other insights, these letters bring to light Weir’s deep love for his two wives (after his first wife’s death, he married her sister) and their children, and detail his devotion to nature. Parallels are drawn between Weir’s pursuits at his Connecticut farm in Branchville and his life in Windham. My chapter documents the building and use of Weir’s Windham studio, which no longer stands, discusses Weir’s connections with fellow artists Emil Carlsen, Childe Hassam, Albert Pinkham Ryder, and John Singer Sargent — friends who visited him in Windham — and analyzes the style and content of individual paintings that Weir, Carlsen, and Hassam completed during stays in Windham.

Chapters 3 and 4 provide in-depth contextual information about the architecture, culture, history, and geography of the region. These help create an accurate sense of time and place, allowing for a deeper understanding of Weir’s life and work in eastern Connecticut.

In chapter 3, historian Jamie Eves traces the profound changes in the environment of northeast Connecticut and the concurrent preoccupation in the state with pastoral preservation. Eves describes in detail the landscapes of Windham and Willimantic as they appeared in Weir’s lifetime. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, eastern Connecticut was largely deforested due to farming and so was characterized by open vistas. Eves compares those views to Windham’s landscape today, tracing Willimantic’s shift from an organic city to a modern urban environment and Windham Center’s transformation — during Weir’s lifetime — from a farm and market village to a social center.

Chapter 4, written by architectural historian Rachel Carley, presents a biography of Weir’s homestead in Windham Center, the Baker-Weir House. After Weir’s first visit to his fiancée Anna Baker’s Windham home, he described it in a letter as the ancient homestead of the Taintors. This comment suggests that Anna spoke of the home’s earliest history and shared her sense of pride in both her family ancestry and the ancestry of the house, which was carefully preserved and handed down through generations. Weir, his first wife Anna, and his second wife Ella all treasured family life and family history. They held on to family treasures — portraits, furniture, clothing, embroidery, legal documents — some dating back to the 1700s. Anna and Ella Baker’s ancestors, the Taintors and Bakers, were influential inhabitants of Windham Center and prominent American citizens. Carley traces the evolution of the house’s ownership and its architectural transformation from a colonial structure to a fashionable Victorian manor and hobby farm. She demonstrates how the Baker-Weir House both symbolized and realized the preservation of family legacy and stability for many generations. Taken together, the chapters that comprise this book celebrate the interconnectedness of art, architecture, family, history, and environment. This book is meant to be a beginning. I hope that it will inspire subsequent writers to dig even further into this rich history.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Anne E. Dawson

The publication of this book would not have been possible without the considerable support of many individuals and institutions. I am honored that the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving selected the book for the Driftless Connecticut Series. I am grateful to Charles Burlingham, Jr., Linda Cook, superintendent of the Weir Farm National Historic Site, and D. Samuel Quigley, director of the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, for generous funding support. The project also depended on a sabbatical and numerous CSU-AAUP faculty development and faculty research grants. I am indebted to the faculty who served on these committees and who donated their valuable time and energy to read and evaluate my proposals.

I offer special thanks to Elizabeth Peterson, former director of the Akus Gallery at Eastern Connecticut State University, for directing my attention to such a rewarding topic and to Rachel Carley and Jamie Eves for contributing stimulating essays that have greatly enriched this book.

From the beginning of this endeavor through its completion, Charles Burlingham, Jr., acted as a key collaborator and supporter. Charlie opened his home to me on numerous occasions, offered wise feedback on an essay draft, shared his considerable knowledge of the Baker and Weir families and their ancestors, read and transcribed many primary documents, provided access to his art collection, and was generous enough to write the opening chapter for this book. Charlie’s kindness, hospitality, enthusiasm for history, sharp intelligence, and wonderful sense of humor made this project more fulfilling than I could have imagined. He is surely the keeper of the flame for his generation. Other Weir family descendants deserve my special thanks as well, especially the late William Carlin, along with Caroline Bick, Robin Burlingham, Lisa and Tom Quinn, and Jim Perry. Betty Ann Carlin provided support after her husband’s death.

The many people who manage and care for Weir Farm National Historic Site were crucial to the success of this project. Superintendent Linda Cook provided my first tour of Weir Farm and was supportive, enthusiastic, and kind throughout. Dolores Tirri deserves my deep appreciation for the many hours she spent assisting me in the Weir Farm archives and for her thoughtfulness in responding to countless e-mail queries. Jessica Kuhnen was equally generous in responding to my e-mail requests. I would also like to thank other supporters at Weir Farm, especially Christa Weinbaum, Cassie Werne, and Adrian Zeck.

Marian Wardle, curator of American Art at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art — herself a Weir scholar — provided advice, research assistance, feedback on a chapter draft, and hospitality during my week-long stay in Provo. At the museum, Cheryll May and Clyda Ludlow also supplied valuable assistance, as did Cindy Brightenburg, Maralee Carlin, Leigh Meister, John Murphy, and Tom Wells at Brigham Young University’s L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library.

Residents of Windham, Connecticut, were enthusiastic collaborators from the earliest stages of this project. I am indebted to Barbara and John McGrath, owners of the Baker-Weir House in Windham Center, for their kind assistance and for allowing me access to their home and property on numerous occasions. Nancy Ames and Ken Ames, former owners of the Frink House, deserve my sincere gratitude as well. Nancy shared her extensive research on Windham Center and its residents. Nancy Thorpe who, among other things, shared her material on Lou Frink, and Ernie Eldredge, David Light, Jr., William McMunn, Elaine Rogers, Anita Sebastian, and Bev York also deserve my thanks. Descendants of Weir’s farmhand, Henry Adams — Cindy Ridder, Ann Smith, and Horace Smith — shared critical primary information. Ruth Potter, whose grandfather worked for J. Alden Weir, also provided crucial primary source material.

This project depended on the assistance of many scholars and personnel at various archives, galleries, historical societies, libraries, and museums. In addition to agreeing to contribute to this publication as an author, Jamie Eves provided critical archival assistance in his capacity as director of the Windham History and Textile Museum. I had the benefit of insights and feedback at various stages of this project, beginning in 2010, from Jeffrey Andersen and Amy Kurtz Lansing of the Florence Griswold Museum. They were generous in sharing their time and expertise. Jane LeGrow and Sam Quigley at the Lyman Allyn Museum of Art provided valuable access to the museum’s Weir collections and shared my vision for seeing this project presented as an exhibition. The late Hildegard Cummings and Susan G. Larkin provided early advice. Vital assistance was also provided by: Elizabeth Oustinoff, Adelson Gallery; Arnold Tunstall, Akron Art Museum; Marisa Bourgoin, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution; Teresa Shannon, Arizona State Art Museum; Diane Forsberg, The Arkell Museum at Canajoharie; Denise Mahony, Art Institute of Chicago; Liz Kurtulik Mercuri and Robbi Siegel, Art Resource, Inc.; Lyle Gray Dawson, Babcock Galleries; John and Maureen Boyd, Boyd’s Auctions; Mark Brock, Brock and Company; Ruth Janson, Brooklyn Museum of Art; Jonathan Nolting, Cincinnati Art Museum; Elizabeth Saluk, Cleveland Museum of Art; Kirstin R. Auer, Thomas Colville, and Alli F. Schaefer, Colville Fine Art; Adrian Atkins and Ray Axelrod, Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum; Nancy Finlay and Sierra Dixon, Connecticut Historical Society; Carolyn Picciano, Jeannie Sherman, and Mel Smith, Connecticut State Library; Jeff and Betsey Cooley, Cooley Gallery; Ila Furman, Andria Jain, Alexandra Mosher, and Lisa Strong, Corcoran Gallery of Art; Diana Daniels and John Urgo, Crocker Art Museum; David Dufour; Kathleen Burnside, Hirschl and Adler Galleries; Amanda Burden, David Rau, and Nicole Wholean, Florence Griswold Museum; Richard H. Love, Love Galleries; Carolyn Grosch and Erin Walker, Lyman Allyn Art Museum; Michael Owen and Jim Yost, Owen Gallery; Michelle DeShazo, The Phillips Collection; Ana Cox, Phoenix Art Museum; Jennifer Harper and Amanda Kohn, Portland Art Museum; Shannon Sweeney, Saint Louis Art Museum; Christine Berry, Spanierman Gallery; Louise Laplante, Linda Muehlig, and Kate Kearns, Smith College Museum of Art; Richard Sorensen, Smithsonian American Art Museum; Geoffrey K. Fleming, Southold Historical Society; Laura Smith and Betsy Pittman, Archives and Special Collections, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut; Thomas Bruhn, Carla Galfano, and Eve Perry, William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut; Carol Santalucia, Windham Free Library; Patricia P. Spruance, Windham Town Hall; and Moira Fitzgerald and Leah Jehan,