With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Northam 'Tod' Robinson Gould
Education/Curation, Painting/Drawing
1893 – 1963
During the mid-1930s, the Goulds directed a summer art gallery and school at the Four Corners in Marlborough. It was called the Central Connecticut Art Center. A group of artists from the area collaborated to present classes and exhibits. Artists involved included Harold Barbour, Albert McCutcheon, W. Langdon Kihn, Northam R. Gould, Hilda Anderson, F. VanVleet Tompkins, Henry Kreis, Helen Remsin, and Heinz Warneke.
- Biography/Description of Work
Northam Robinson Gould was born in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Lucien Henry Gould, a business man, and Florence Robinson Gould, a native of England and former school teacher. Called by the nickname ‘Tod’ for all his adult life, Northam Gould grew up in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, then a distant suburb. He attended Erasmus Hall High School and the Pratt Institute, the Cleveland Art School, and the Art Students League, where he was taught by Frank Dumond and Robert Henri. He and his wife, Eleanor, lived in her home town in West Virginia for a decade and then moved to Connecticut. They lived in the area of Middletown and East Hampton for some years, and Gould became known as a portrait and landscape painter. In 1940 they purchased and restored the 1794 General Epaphroditus Champion house at 5 Landing Hill Road in East Haddam.
- Sources view
- Gould, Northam Robinson biography. Accessed at: http://www.blgould.com/nrgould1.html
Marlborough Tavern history. Reflections of History web site. Accessed at: http://www.reflectionsofhistory.org/towns/Marlborough/Marlborough_Tavern.php
Central Connecticut Art Center. Descriptive brochure accessed at the Haddam Historical Society Harold Barbour archives.
Keiner, Hal. 1983. East Haddam National Register Historic District Nomination, No. 83001273. National Park Service. Note: also a Local Historic District accessed at http://lhdct.org/district/list/east-haddam-historic-district - Associated Resource(s)