Events

Open House

Saturday November 16, 11 AM to 2 PM
Gov. George S. Boutwell House, 172 Main Street, Groton

Capturing the light of a summer day, the turn of a woman’s head, the pensive pose of his daughter reading, American impressionist Edmund C. Tarbell’s work has an immediacy that invites the viewer into the frame.

Born in West Groton in 1862, Tarbell studied art from a young age, first privately, then at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, before continuing at the Académie Julian in Paris. Here he copied the Old Masters, and got caught up in the then-cutting-edge Impressionist movement.

At 24, after a European tour, Tarbell returned to Boston, where he gained prominence as an artist and influence as a teacher. He became a leading light in the Boston School of American artists. Today, his work hangs in the MFA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, the Worcester Art Museum, and many others.

To learn more about Edmund Tarbell, his era, his paintings, and the Tarbell’s of West Groton (among the earliest settlers, in 1663, of the Groton Plantation), drop into the Groton History Center’s Boutwell House, 172 Main Street, on November 16 and December 7. 

Numerous Tarbell artworks, on loan from the Tarbell Charitable Trust, await, including a recently acquired landscape. 

All are welcome free of charge.

With the ambiance of a home, and the holdings of a museum, the 1851 Boutwell House is a remarkable treasury. Get acquainted with the collections, and the influential artist born in the Asa Tarbell House on the Squannacook River.

Thanks to the Tarbell Charitable Trust and the Groton Cultural Council

Holiday Open House

Saturday December 7, 11 AM – 2 PM
Gov. George S. Boutwell House, 172 Main Street, Groton

The Footwork & Frolick Society will demonstrate popular 1860s dances in historical costume. 

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