Fishing on the Connecticut River
ca. 1881
20th Century
24 1/4 in. x 34 1/2 in.
Dwight Tryon,
American,
(1849–1925)
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
oil on canvas
Credit Line:
Dorothy Clark Archibald Acquisition Fund Purchase
Accession Number:
2012.12
This painting of a local scene was competed by Hartford artist Dwight Tryon. This work is atypical of Tryon’s work and shows him in a different stage of his career—pre-tonalism. Tryon frequently visited the Wadsworth Atheneum and painted what he saw there, he later went to France and absorbed the principles of Barbizon painting. The brushy techniques suggest a modern gesture in which the ground is allowed to show through. In 1891 Tryon returns to the US and settles in Glastonbury CT where he grew up. He sold his works at the Kellogg and Brown bookstore. This work shows the artist transitioning from one mode of painting to another. He is experimenting with Hudson River School techniques, as well as Barbizon style in the trees and muted tone, and with Impressionist brush strokes. This work is unique in that it shows us what is going on in a young artist's mind. Tryon enjoyed fishing and boating, and here selects as his subject a motif that closely intersected with his leisure-time passion.