Seven Miles to Farmington
ca.1853
19th Century
26 in. x 36 1/8 in.
George Henry Durrie,
American,
(1820–1863)
Medium and Support:
oil on canvas
Credit Line:
Florence Griswold Museum, Gift of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company
Accession Number:
2002.1.50
Few artists shaped the popular image of New England more than George H. Durrie, whose Connecticut landscapes were distributed as prints by the firm of Currier and Ives. Painted in an era when railroads were becoming the dominant mode of travel, "Seven Miles to Farmington," which exists in several versions, encourages nostalgia for the country tavern as a cheery wayside social center. Rather than depicting rural homesteads in their original settings Durrie, who lived in New Haven, often selected elements to create idyllic composites.