The Wadsworth Atheneum

On Sunday April 15, I decided to visit the Wadsworth Atheneum located at 600 Main St in Hartford, CT. The museum was surprisingly easy to get to and would have been a perfect day except for the torrential downpours. Other then that I got there just after the museum opened and it seemed like I pretty much had the entire place to myself, which was kind of nice.
The Wadsworth Atheneum is America's oldest continuously operating art museum, founded in 1842. This was three decades before the Met in New York City and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It was founded by Daniel Wadsworth to give the public exposure to fine art that they are normally not accustomed to seeing.




The Atheneum's permanent collection features a diverse selection of modern and international art as well as many representatives of American paintings, sculpture, and decorative pieces. Other then being the first public museum in America it also has been an innovator in a number of firsts. In the 1930s, the Atheneum held the first Surrealism exhibit in America, and the museum's collection of surrealist and modern art features prominent names, such as Salvador Dali, as well as many lesser known Surrealist artists. The museum places a large emphasis on local artists, and many of its exhibitions showcase Hartford or Connecticut artists.
From the minute I walked in I noticed how friendly the staff was, they were there to greet me when I walked in and were happy to answer any questions I had. I thought it would be best to make sure I knew the policy on photography. They sent me right over to the security guard and had me fill out a non-disclosure form and gave me a photography badge.
As I was walking through the museum I noticed a number of eye-catching exhibits from the number of American History paintings on the first floor to the Connecticut paintings, furniture, and recreated rooms on the third floor and other parts of the museum.



I also walked in to look at the exhibit they were displaying "Picasso to Pop" that had a number of more recent artworks. The painting that had caught my eye was one by Louis Anquetin called Avenue de Clichey.



Louis Anquetin was born in Etrepagny, France, in 1861. In 1882, he came to Paris and began studying art at Léon Bonnat's studio, where he met Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The two artists later moved to the studio of Fernand Cormon, where they befriended Émile Bernard and Vincent van Gogh.
At the end of my walk through this is the painting that I remembered. The overall scheme of the painting is very dark. Everyone is the painting seems to be drawn in to stay close to the light. I feel the vibrant blue colors is what made this painting stand out in my mind. This painting is also said to be a direct influence on Van Gogh's Cafe Terrace At Night.