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They’re Back! Renowned Wadsworth Collection Reinstalled After International Tour
HARTFORD, Conn., December 17, 2008 - After more than two years on view at some of Europe’s most prestigious museums, the Wadsworth Atheneum’s renowned Hudson River School Collection is back.
Opening December, 26, 2008, the 28 piece exhibition precedes a larger scale reinstallation slated for the fall of 2009. Centered mainly on the works of Frederic Church and Thomas Cole, the exhibition will also include the Museum’s latest acquisition, Cole’s Life, Death and Immortality painted in 1844.
Previously unknown, the painting can be traced back to a letter Cole wrote to Daniel Wadsworth in 1844, imploring Wadsworth to acquire a series of historical landscapes for the newly opened Wadsworth Atheneum. This painting is the only known realization of the ideas expressed in the artist’s letter and the only known work in the series.
Other highlights of the exhibition include Frederic Church’s Hooker and Company Journeying through the Wilderness in 1636 from Plymouth to Hartford. A pupil of Thomas Cole and a Hartford native, Church’s first major landscape depicts the founding of Connecticut and the infamous Charter Oak Tree.
“I’m delighted to have these important works back in Hartford and back on view following their successful European tour,” said Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Krieble Curator of American Painting and Sculpture at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. “Our Hudson River School collection is one of the finest in the world and for many, a visit to the Wadsworth is not complete without viewing these important works.”
The Hudson River School is the first national school of landscape art in the United States and it emerged between 1825 and 1875. Artists from the school were active in New York City and frequented the Catskill Mountain region. The bounty of nature was a frequent subject as it expressed the burgeoning nation’s hopes and aspirations.
The core of the Wadsworth Atheneum’s acclaimed Hudson River School collection was formed by two major patrons, Daniel Wadsworth (1771-1848), the Museum’s founder and one of Thomas Cole’s major patrons, and Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt (1826-1905), widow of Samuel Colt and a staunch supporter of the arts. Many of the works in the Wadsworth Atheneum’s collection were commissioned directly from the artists by either Daniel Wadsworth or Elizabeth Colt – lending purity to the collection not found anywhere else.
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is located at 600 Main St. in Hartford, Connecticut. The Museum is open Tuesdays to Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Please visit www.wadsworthatheneum.org for more information.
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Contact:
Kimberly Reynolds
Manager, Media Relations
860-838-4055 (o)
Kimberly.reynolds@wadsworthatheneum.org
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