Lyme Art Association

Lyme Art Association Gallery
Lyme Art Association Gallery Winter 2017
General information
Architectural style	shingle style
Address	90 Lyme St.
Town or city	Old Lyme, CT
Country	United States
Opened	August 6, 1921
Design and construction
Architecture firm	Charles A. Platt
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Coordinates	41°19′18″N 72°19′40″W / 41.32167°N 72.32778°W / 41.32167; -72.32778
NRHP reference #	71000916
Added to NRHP	October 14, 1971

Lyme Art Association (LAA) is an arts organization established in 1914, with roots going back to 1902. The organization maintains a historic art gallery located at 90 Lyme Street in Old Lyme, Connecticut, located in the Old Lyme Historic District. The gallery was built in 1921 and designed by famed architect and artist Charles A. Platt. Exhibitions are held throughout the year by member artists as well as visiting artists. The building also has a north-light studio where classes are conducted year-round.

The LAA is an outgrowth of the Old Lyme Art Colony, an art colony established by Henry Ward Ranger, a leading tonalist painter from New York. After discovering the town of Old Lyme in 1899, Ranger returned with like-minded tonalist painters in 1900. Boarding at the house of Florence Griswold, now the Florence Griswold Museum, the artists painted the local countryside. In the summer of 1902, the village library committee asked the artists to hold a two-day exhibition at the Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library. Proceeds from the exhibition were to benefit the library. Sales from the exhibition were high, with art enthusiasts travelling to the show from New York and Boston. The show, consisting entirely of landscapes depicting the local countryside, featured Tonalist artists Henry Ward Ranger, Allen Butler Talcott, Clark Voorhees, Frank DuMond, William Henry Howe, Gifford Beal, Walter Griffin, Louis Paul Dessar, Arthur Dawson, and Lewis Cohen.

Each summer, large crowds would travel to the annual exhibitions, travelling by train to see the work at the library. In 1903, Childe Hassam was the sole Impressionist among the tonalist exhibition, and his presence marked a turning point among the painters toward a more impressionist style. In 1905, the Impressionist painter Willard Metcalf exhibited two works at the library. In subsequent years, artists such as Bruce Crane, Henry Rankin Poore, Robert Vonnoh, Bessie Potter Vonnoh, Matilda Browne, Lawton S. Parker, Everett Warner, Ivan Olinsky, George Henry Bogert, Wilson Irvine, Edward Volkert, Carleton Wiggins, Guy C. Wiggins, William S. Robinson, Harry L. Hoffman, Edward Rook, Frank Bicknell and Will Howe Foote would exhibit in the annual shows.