Norwalk, CT – On Sunday, July 12, 2020, at 2 p.m. the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum will present author and scholar Eve M. Kahn for an illustrated virtual talk on the forgotten American impressionist, Mary Rogers Williams.
(photo: Ted Hendrickson) (contributed photo)
Ms. Kahn said, “I grew up visiting the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum and can’t wait to bring my research and Mary’s story into the context of her kindred spirits of Victorian adventurers who lived in that spectacular house.”
Revolutionary artist Mary Rogers Williams (1857—1907), a baker’s daughter from Hartford, Connecticut, biked and hiked from the Arctic Circle to Naples, exhibited from Paris to Indianapolis, trained at the Art Students League, chafed against art world rules that favored men, wrote thousands of pages about her travels and work, taught at Smith College for nearly two decades, but sadly ended up almost totally obscure.
The book, Forever Seeing New Beauties, reproduces her unpublished artworks that capture pensive gowned women, Norwegian slopes reflected in icy waters, saw-tooth rooflines on French chateaus, and incense hazes in Italian chapels, and it offers a vivid portrayal of an adventurer, defying her era’s expectations.
Author Eve M. Kahn is an independent scholar specializing in art and architectural history, design and preservation, and was weekly Antiques columnist at The New York Times, 2008—2016. She contributes regularly to the Times, The Magazine Antiques, Apollo, and Atlas Obscura.
The Museum’s 2020 cultural and educational programs are made possible in part by generous funding from LMMM’s Founding Patrons: The Estate of Mrs. Cynthia Clark Brown; LMMM’s Leadership Patrons: The Sealark Foundation; LMMM’s 2020 Season Distinguished Benefactors: The City of Norwalk and The Maurice Goodman Foundation; LMMM’s 2020 Distinguished Benefactors for Education: The Daphne Seybolt Culpeper Memorial Foundation, Inc.
The lecture admission is free but we welcome donations to support the Museum’s cultural and educational virtual programming during the COVID-19 crisis. For reservations and additional information on schedules and programs please visit our website: lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, email info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com or call 203-838-9799, ext. 4. The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is a National Historic Landmark.
The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is a National Historic Landmark. For more information on schedules and programs please visit www.lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, e-mail info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, or call 203-838-9799.
