John Henry Twachtman (1853-1902)
Untitled: Old Saltbox, ca. 1895
Oil on Canvas
Museum purchase, x2000.08

From the early 1890s until the 1920s the Holley House was the gathering place for a group of artists and writers who were members of what became known as the Cos Cob art colony, the first Impressionist art colony in Connecticut.  The Cos Cob art colony played a major role in the development of American art because it was here that the leading American Impressionist artists gathered to discuss their work and to teach.  Among the early members were Childe Hassam, Ernest Lawson, Theodore Robinson, John Henry Twachtman and J. Alden Weir.  

The first documented arrival of artists was in 1892 when John Henry Twachtman and J. Alden Weir taught summer classes in Cos Cob for the Art Students League in New York. In 1896 Elmer MacRae came to the Holley House as a student. 

Childe Hassam (1859-1935)
Clarissa, 1912
Oil on canvas
The Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich purchased with funds from Ann K. Arnold, Mr. and Mrs. Harris J. Ashton, Louis C. Baker, Bankers Trust Co. Connecticut Ltd., Mr. and Mrs. Edward H. Bragg, Jr. Martin Edelston, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas M. Evans, Mrs. Agnew Fisher, Mr. and Mrs. Everett Fisher, Mr. and Mrs. Robert B. Goergen, Mr. Brooks Hamoffman, Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Lyon, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Malkin, Mrs. John Mayer, Mr. and Mrs, Russell S. Reynolds, Jr., Stolt Parcel Tankers Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Thome, Mr. and Mrs. Hugh B. Vanderbilt, Mr. and Mrs. David W. Wallace, Bernard and Jean Yudain, 1995.03

He fell in love with Emma Constant Holley, the daughter of the owners of the Holley House, Josephine and Edward Holley.  In 1900 Constant and Elmer married and together they ran the boardinghouse which continued to attract artists and writers for more than two decades.

Childe Hassam (1859-1935)
The Mantle Piece, 1912
Oil on cigar box lid
museum purchase, 2005.05.01

He returned to paint at the Holley House frequently, making the house and the surrounding area subjects of his work. In this work Hassam painted Clarissa, one of the MacRae twins, sitting in the front hall.  She sits in front of a bookcase built by MacRae.  This painting was an important source for understanding what the front hall looked like during the art colony period.

Childe Hassam (1859-1935)
The Writing Desk, 1915
Etching
Museum purchase, x2002.109

A young girl, unidentified, stands in front of the fireplace in the best bedroom of Bush-Holley House.  The chair to the right is still in the collection of the Historical Society.

George Wharton Edwards (1859-1950)
The Grand Bazaar at Constantinople (Bayuk Tcharchi), 1928-1929
Oil on canvas
Gift of Mr. Norris C. Carter, 1958.11.07

This is a portrait of Mrs. Hassam sitting at the desk in the dining room of Bush-Holley House.  This etching, along with photographs and other works, helped to show what Bush-Holley House looked like during the art colony period.

Walter A. Fitch (1861-1910)
View of the Garden, ca. 1900
Pastel on paper
Gift of Ruth Fitch Mason, 1958.04.02

Edwards was a prolific artist, illustrator and writer who produced more than sixty illustrated books.  Around 1909 he began to focus most of his time towards writing and illustrating sumptuous gift travel books. In 1928 he traveled to Turkey looking for locales that were exotic to Westerners.  Shortly after completing this painting, it was exhibited at New York’s Grand Central Art Galleries and at the National Academy of Design.  For his book Constantinople/Istamboul, however, he chose a different view of the vaulted Grand Bazaar.

Ernest Lawson (1873-1939)
A Sunny Morning, North Mianus, Connecticut, ca. 1892
Oil on canvas
Purchased in honor of Claire F. Vanderbilt with donations to the Greenwich Historic Trust, 1999.07

Fitch began making annual summer visits to Cos Cob in 1900, and was a year-round resident from about 1906 to 1909.  He rendered this view, believed to be the Holley House garden, in pastel, a medium whose portability and nature made it particularly well suited to the Impressionist practice of working out of doors, en plein aire, and capturing the essence of a place and time.

Ernest Thompson Seton (1860-1946)
Quails, ca. 1890
Ink, gray wash heightened with white gouache on paper
William E. Finch, Jr. Archives, Gift of Mrs. Fairchild, 1962

The most famous of the students John Henry Twachtman and Julian Alden Weir taught in their 1892 and 1893 summer classes at Cos Cob was Ernest Lawson.  He visited the art colony periodically during the 1890s, and again in 1900 and 1913.  While he painted both urban and landscape subjects in New York City, in summer in Cos Cob his focus was limited almost exclusively to landscapes rendered in the Impressionist mode.

Julian Alden Twachtman (1882-1974)
Vaux & Hill 204, early 20th century
Pastel on paper
Gift of Miss Catherine Baldwin Blanke, D210.01

Seton was one of the writers-illustrators who spent time at the Holley House with the painters, writers, publishers, journalists and musicians who frequented the inn.  Seton was a self-taught naturalist. He wrote and illustrated scores of books featuring animal heroes and woodcraft skills.  He lived in Cos Cob and Greenwich from 1900 to 1930 and established a popular boys’ camp,  at his wooded estate, Wyndygoul, in Cos Cob.

Elmer MacRae
Constant Feeding the Ducks, c. 1912,
oil painting

Julian Alden Twachtman was the oldest son of John Henry Twachtman.  An artist in his own right, he studied with his father John Henry Twachtman as well as at the Yale School of Fine Arts and the École des Beaux Arts, Paris.

Leon Gambetta Volkmar (1879-1959)
Covered Jar, 1923
Earthenware with Sang de Boeuf glaze, wheel thrown
Museum purchase, 2007.04 a-b

Leon Gambetta Volkmar (1879-1959)
Vase, ca. 1915
Glazed ceramic, wheel thrown
Durant Kiln, Bedford, New York
Gift of John and Henrietta Volkmar, C1971.01.05

Jean Rice, along with her former ceramics teacher Leon Volkmar, founded Durant Kilns.  Here Volkmar designed his own kilns and experimented with chemicals and heat leading eventually to the rediscovery of the ancient Chinese, Persian and Egyptian glazes for which he is known.  His son recalls that “He used a kick wheel rather than an electric one as he claimed forming delicate pieces was impossible with the electric drive. In later years his varicose veins caused him pain so he had a …electric motor attached which he used only for centering the piece of clay." Volkmar visited Greenwich and the Holley House periodically from about 1911. Constant frequently used his vases for her flower arrangements. The Historical Society owns many outstanding examples of his art pottery.

Genjiro Yeto (1867-1924)
Cover and Illustration for Tora’s Happy Day, 1899
Florence Peltier Perry
New York: The Alliance Publishing Company
William E. Finch, Jr. Archives, Holley-MacRae Collection, 1957

Yeto came to the United States in 1890 with the intention of pursuing a career in commerce. In 1895 he enrolled at New York’s Art Students League. The following summer, 1896, he joined Twachtman’s summer class at the Holley House with his close friend Elmer MacRae.  Between 1896 and 1901 he spent part of each year at the Holley House.  Tora’s Happy Day launched his illustration career.  This book was given to Constant before she married Elmer; inscribed on the inside front cover is “Constant Holley, 1899”.