Pasture (Damon's Hill, Old Lyme)

Critics lauded Willard Leroy Metcalf for his ability to capture the spirit of the New England landscape in a uniquely American style. In Pasture (Damon's Hill, Old Lyme), Metcalf conveys the quiet energy of spring in a realistic depiction of the Old Lyme, Connecticut countryside. The artist first visited the artists' colony of Old Lyme in 1903 at the invitation of friend and fellow artist Childe Hassam. Inspired by the lush meadows and rolling hills, he returned for the summers of 1905 through 1908. Painted in 1906, the present work captures the landscape that occupied Metcalf's artistic imagination in the artist's signature Impressionist style, complete with the delicate light and careful color that placed Metcalf among the best of his contemporaries.
The quality of the Connecticut landscapes, now counted among some of Metcalf's most important works, was immediately recognized by the art press. These lyrical compositions demonstrated a stylistic maturity not seen in his Maine works of the year before. "His brushwork and color harmonies matured and diversified; his subjects and compositions became more varied" (R.J. Boyle, et al., Willard Metcalf: Yankee Impressionist, New York, 2003, p. 22). While rendered in an Impressionist style, the locations of Metcalf's landscapes are readily apparent, and the Americanness of his paintings was critically acclaimed: "Nationalism...was ascendant in the United States in art as in diplomacy, and foreign influences were becoming increasingly suspect. In such a climate, even though Metcalf's technique may have reflected his French training and his sympathy for Impressionism, the more noticeable aspects of his new paintings, for the critics, were their peculiarly American sense of place" (ibid., p. 20). Indeed, Pasture (Damon's Hill, Old Lyme) demonstrates Metcalf's singular approach to the American landscape, undoubtedly influenced by the Impressionist idiom, yet wholly American in spirit.