Wilson Irvine - Old Lyme, Connecticut Years

Old Lyme, Connecticut Years

While developing his career in Chicago, Irvine frequently headed east, painting in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and elsewhere in New England — as early as 1906, he exhibited New England scenes at the Art Institute. He also took working vacations elsewhere in the Eastern U.S., including to Virginia and New Orleans.

But it was not until he was 45 (in 1914) that Irvine packed up and moved his family to Old Lyme, Connecticut, becoming part of the famed Florence Griswold circle, now recognized as the "American Barbizon," hub of American Impressionism. It is as an Old Lyme painter that Irvine is best remembered today. (But even after relocating East, Irvine maintained his contacts with Chicago, where the market for his work remained strong.) He corresponded with Sidney C. Woodward.

Following through on his early experiments with the airbrush, in his later years Irvine continued to try out new artistic techniques. His later work includes "aqua prints" and "prismatic painting." His Prismatic Winter Landscape appeared on the cover of the 31 January 1931 issue of The Literary Digest.

By the end of his career, Irvine was regularly landing solo exhibitions, including at:

• Chicago's Carson Pirie Scott (1922)
• Connecticut's Wadsworth Atheneum (1925)
• New York's Grand Central Art Galleries (1930)