Canvas and Cast: Highlights from the Bruce Museum’s Art Collection

In October 1912, the Bruce Museum hosted its first exhibition of art. At the time, the Greenwich Press noted that it was a welcome change to see “a long gallery hung with paintings from the best works of local artists.”

Since then, the Bruce Museum has not only exhibited many paintings and sculptures by local artists who were influential in establishing the American Impressionist movement, such as Theodore Robinson, John Henry Twachtman, Leonard Ochtman, and Frederick Childe Hassam, but has also acquired works that represent significant moments from the history of art.

Featuring 35 paintings and 7 sculptures from the Bruce’s growing collection, Canvas and Cast celebrates long-time favorites and many recent acquisitions representing significant moments in the history of art from the 16th through the 20th centuries. This exhibition, organized by Peter C. Sutton, The Susan E. Lynch Executive  Director, and curated by Courtney Skipton Long, Zvi Grunberg Postdoctoral Fellow 2016/17 at the Bruce Museum, examines art historical themes including sculpted and painted portraits, narrative scenes and statues, landscapes, still lifes, and genre scenes.

Canvas and Cast explores artists’ handling of different media – bronze, marble, oil, pastel, acrylic and collage – through examples of 16th-century Dutch portraiture, 19th-century American figural sculpture, academic style painting, and French and American landscapes from the turn of the 20th century. 

Exhibition Programs for Canvas and Cast: Highlights from the Bruce Museum’s Art Collection

Thursday, March 29,  6:00-8:00 PM. Evening Lecture 

Peter C. Sutton, The Susan E. Lynch Executive Director of the Bruce Museum, will provide a lecture in conjunction with the Bruce Museum’s exhibition Canvas and Cast: Highlights from the Bruce Museum’s Art Collection. Advance registration on Bruce Museum Eventbrite required.

Sunday, April 2, 3:30-4:30 PM. Peppermints and Whiskey: Edward Fuller Bigelow, Paul Griswold Howes and the Formation of the Bruce Museum by Tim Walsh, Manager of Natural History Collection and Citizen Science, Bruce Museum. Walsh will discuss the 1908 bequeath of a Victorian stone mansion to the Town of Greenwich for the purpose of a museum for natural history, history, and art, and chart the historical progression of transforming a house into a museum. Guests will learn about the two men who compiled the collections and introduced our unique institution the Greenwich community. Free and open to the public. Reservations suggested on Bruce Museum Eventbrite.

Sunday, April 9, 3:30-4:30 PM. Hidden Treasures: Lessons from the Bruce Museum’s Art Collection by Dr. Courtney S. Long, Zvi Grunberg Postdoctoral Fellow and Curatorial Assistant, Bruce Museum. Long will discuss lessons learned from the Bruce Museum’s Art Collection by focusing on the relationships between artists and objects that help to narrate the history of art. Free and open to the public. Reservations suggested on Bruce Museum Eventbrite.

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