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.
James Goodwin McManus
Education/Curation, Painting/Drawing
1882 – 1958
WPA artist who painted local landscapes and identifiable scenes in the Lyme area. His style ranged from Impressionistic to Regionalist.
- Biography/Description of Work
James Goodwin McManus was a noted American artist and is still considered one of the deans of Connecticut art.
Born in Hartford in 1882, his father was a dentist and his mother a descendant of Ozias Goodwin, one of the original founders of the city. In his teens, McManus studied drawing under Charles Noel Flagg at the artist’s studio in Hartford. McManus also trained under Robert B. Brandegee, Walter Griffin, William Gedney Bunce and Montague Flagg. McManus first taught at Hartford Public High School. Later, after helping to found the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, he taught there and at the Connecticut Art Students League. He spent summers at art colonies in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and Old Lyme, Connecticut, where he also vacationed after 1921. McManus often taught at Guy Wiggins Art School at Hamburg Cove in Lyme and later in Essex after Wiggins moved the school there in 1937. McManus was a member of the Hartford Salmagundians, the Salmagundi Club of New York, the Lyme Artists Association, and the New Haven Paint and Clay Club.
James Goodwin McManus never married and eventually moved to West Hartford, but still spent the warmer months in Old Lyme.- Sources view
- http://wpa.cslib.org/index.php/524/mcmanus-james-g/
Cooley Gallery, Old Lyme CT. http://www.cooleygallery.com/a_1_cataloging/mcmanus_fieldsoflyme.pdf (bio from AskArt.com) - Associated Resource(s)