Two Connecticut Painters: From Impressionism to Regionalism

A new exhibit entitled, Two Connecticut Painters: From Impressionism to Regionalism will open on November 7, 2013 at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum. It will feature the works of artists Augustus and Richard Smith Daggy. The exhibit will run through December 29th with a fundraising reception featuring harpist Alix Raspe, and refreshments courtesy of Whole Foods on December 8th from 4:00-6:00pm, tickets are $20 and proceeds will benefit the Museum’s cultural and educational programs.  The artwork is on loan to the Museum by the City of Norwalk Historical Commission and Private Collections from throughout Connecticut.  Co-curators are Norwalk resident Leigh Grant, who recently curated the exhibit “Silvermine Group of Artists” at the Solon Borglum Studio, and Museum Trustee Gail Ingis-Claus of Fairfield, CT, who is also an artist, interior designer and educator. 

Ms. Grant has extensive knowledge of the Daggys and wrote the monograph, Father and Son: Augustus and Richard Smith Daggy in 2008. She quotes John Vassos who said, “Richard Daggy …can be referred to as the Van Gogh of New England. His extreme reverence and humility toward his work make him unquestionably one of the most sincere artists of his time. His water colors are bathed in sunlight and his insistence on essential form at all times is marked. There is nothing of the quaint or superficial in Daggy’s work. It is vigorous and composed and disarmingly sincere. His palette is the palette of a man who loves trees, loves the sky, loves the country and above all loves life, and does not hesitate to say so. He is now in the period where he has found himself, and, in his full stride, is scheduled to make an important contribution to American painting.”

Augustus (1858-1942), an illustrator and painter, was drawn to Norwalk in 1913 for the artists living in the Silvermine area of the town.  This group of artists would later form the Silvermine Guild of Artists of which Augustus was an original member.  The Daggy family resided at Grumman Avenue in Norwalk.  Richard (1892-1973), Augustus’ eldest, was schooled in art by his father.  His paintings, like his father’s, tended to be landscapes, but of a very different style.  His medium was watercolor. (Copyright - Leigh Grant, November 2, 2008).

Harpist Alix Raspé has been a student of harp since age 8. Described as spellbinding, Alix is currently a junior majoring in Harp Performance at New York University and minoring in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies. Alix attended Juilliard Pre-College from 2009-2010, 2010-2011. In 2007, she received the Annapolis Music Festival Maestro Award as an outstanding soloist and was runner up in the NYU Concerto Competition in 2013. Ms. Raspe has performed in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Juilliard’s Paul and Morse Halls, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space and the United Nations.

The fall exhibit at the Mansion is made possible in part by Whole Foods and Investmark.

The Museum’s 2013 cultural and educational programs are made possible by generous funding from distinguished benefactors: The Xerox Foundation, Klaff’s, Mrs. Cynthia C. Brown and The Maurice Goodman Foundation.

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is a National Historic Landmark.  Tours for the museum and exhibit are offered Wednesdays through Sundays, at noon, 1 P.M., 2 P.M., and 3 P.M.  Admittance is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $6 for children.  Children under 8 are admitted free.  For more information, visit www.lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, e-mail info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, or call 203-838-9799.