Charles Ethan Porter, Fruit: Apples, Grapes, Peaches, and Pears

Charles Ethan Porter, Fruit: Apples, Grapes, Peaches, and Pears, 1875, oil on canvas – Connecticut Historical Society

The creative arts in Connecticut range from indigenous peoples’ early ceramic vessels and Puritan gravestones to the works of celebrated figures in later centuries. The latter include poetess Lydia Sigourney, painter Charles Ethan Porter, writer Mark Twain, architect Theodate Pope Riddle, and sculptor Alexander Calder. Collectors, patrons, and institutions, too, have shaped the state’s arts history. Among these are the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, the first public art institution in the US, and Florence Griswold, who nurtured the Lyme Art Colony at the turn of the 20th century. Today, the arts, old and new, can be enjoyed in public spaces as well as historic venues, such as Goodspeed Opera House.

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