The Wadsworth Athenaeum Of Art - 1419 Words

The Wadsworth Athenaeum of Art has been in existence since 1842. Located in Hartford, Connecticut, it is the nation’s oldest public art museum. The founder, Daniel Wadsworth, was a world-renowned art patron who acquired many famous works that would put his museum at the forefront of all its competitors. The museum has a impeccable reputation as a leader for innovation and experimentation due to its previous Director, A. Everett â€Å"Chick† Austin, Jr. Austin always pushed the envelop by continuing to feature new styles of art and different mediums of art. Currently, the museum is home to almost 50,000 pieces that vary from paintings to historical artifacts. The collection features pieces from over 5,000 years and is a big piece of not only Connecticut’s, but also a part of American history. The museum has many different collections but the one I was most impressed by its extensive collection of American Art that features paintings from the Hudson River School, Georgia O’Keefe, and Norma Rockwell, but also sculptures by other famous artist. During High School, I took an Environmental Science course that did not only cover the scientific aspects of the subject, but also the how the environment has been immortalized. We studied the Hudson River School and artist like Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, and Albert Bierstadt, whose works all featured the many environmental landscapes in their works. The Wadsworth has one of the largest collections of the Hudson River Schools