It doesn’t take long to see why, at the start of the 20th century, artists were happy to jump on a shiny new train and flee the teeming cities of New York and Boston for a rather fine guesthouse in Old Lyme, Connecticut. On arrival, the guesthouse’s owner, Florence Griswold, would escort the artist in, sit them down and crack open a bottle of wine before escorting them, arm in arm, into the gardens. And what beautiful gardens they were – and continue to be.
At that time, Americans had begun to appreciate gardens as a pastime. The British influences of William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll were keenly absorbed, and gardens became increasingly popular as places of emotional pleasure and physical sustenance. Not least because gardens became one of the few arenas in which women could work freely – planting, nurturing, writing and painting.
Gardens, like those cultivated at the Old Lyme art colony, became a key source of inspiration for artists. Originally inspired by Monet’s Giverny, a generation of American painters sought to reflect their culture through the gardens they chose to design and then paint. At Old Lyme, all they had to do was walk out of the door after breakfast. Some even built their own studios – glorified sheds really – in the grounds and painted what they could see from their deck. One or two have been reconstructed today, and it’s hard not to feel like picking up a brush and trying, like the great American painter Childe Hassam, to paint the gorgeous apple blossoms right in front of you.
Today, the gardens are a delight, a careful recultivation of how they would have looked 120 years ago, with bordered beds containing masses of hollyhock, iris, foxglove and other perennials. The 13-acre grounds overlook the lovely Lieutenant river, where many artists would have set up their easels. Florence’s guesthouse, a handsome Georgian house (and open to the public) is also little changed downstairs – full of furniture, artworks and games. Upstairs is an art collection featuring work by the American impressionists who lived in the house.
Visitors can also enjoy the modern Krieble Gallery a few hundred paces away – which plays host to temporary exhibitions as well as a small cinema, bookshop and superb restaurant.
• florencegriswoldmuseum.org. Phil Grabsky is director of The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism, part of the Exhibition on Screen series, in cinemas from 21 March
