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Jules Turcas
Lyme Art Colony
American, (1854–March 16, 1917) In Lyme: summers 1902-1917
Surprisingly little is known of Jules Turcas, who for at least twelve consecutive seasons was an exhibiting member of the Old Lyme colony and whose paintings were consistently praised by reviewers of the anual Lyme exhibition. Turcas is known to have been at the Griswold house in the summer of 1902 and to have exhibited with the group in 1905. By 1907 he and his wife, Ella, had bought their own summer home about six miles north of the vilage, on top of Grassy Hill. This rural setting undoubtedly proved more tranquil than the bustling Griswold house and afforded ample opportunity to paint the farm scenes that were a favorite subject.

Turcas was born in Cuba, the son of a sugar plantation owner. Of comfortable means, at some point he studied abroad in Germany, but his youth was marred by tragedy when in 1873 his father, mother, and sister were all lost in the sinking of the transatlatnic steamer, Ville de Havre.

Although few examples of Turcas' work are known today, the titles of paintings he exhibited in Connecticut and in New York suggest a pervasive interest in farm labor, viewed outdoors in various seasons and at different times of day. He appears to be true to the Barbizon tradition not only in his choice of subject matter but in his use of color, preferring gray skies and an overall amber key to the bolder hues adopted by several of his Old Lyme contemporaries.

While virtually forgotten in recent times, Turcas was recognized by his peers and by the art establishment of his day. He exhibited at the National Academy of Design, at the Century Association, and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, while retaining memberships in the Century Association, the Lotos Club, the Salmagundi Club, and the Allied Artists of America. He received medals at the Pan-American Exposition, buffalo, 1901; at the Artists' Aid Society, Philadelphia, 1902; and at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. After Turcas' death in 1917, the artist Charles Vezin wrote in "His art was strong...quiet, noble, and will survive the fashions of manner, technique, and subject..."