Windsor Historical Society curator Erin Stevic will discuss the use of Windsor landscapes in nationally-known 19th century artist Albert Fitch Bellows’ work.   During her presentation, Ms. Stevic will explore Bellows’ stage of life painting Life’s Day: Thrice across the Stream and compare Bellows’ work to Hudson River School artist Thomas Cole’s series Voyage of Life.  A slide show and several prints of Bellows’ artwork will be on view during the talk.

Alfred Fitch Bellows was born in Milford, Massachusetts in 1829 and trained under Boston architect A. B. Young.  After spending several years studying art in Europe, Bellows returned to the US in the late 1850s to establish a portrait studio in New York City.  In the 1860s, he began studying the artwork of American landscape painters including Thomas Cole.  Bellows spent his remaining years traveling through New England painting the region’s towns and villages. The artist used Windsor, Connecticut as the model for his most famous landscape painting, Life’s Day: Thrice across the Stream, a series of three canvases that depict the town’s residence crossing the Farmington River for a baptism, a wedding, and a funeral. A print from Life’s Day is currently on view in the Society’s new fall/winter exhibition Windsor Artists: Then and Now.  This exhibition features fine and decorative artwork made by Windsor artists over the past 400 years, and is sponsored by an anonymous donor, Rabbett Insurance, the Town of Windsor through its Arts and Culture granting program, and Windsor Federal Savings.

The fourth in a series of public lectures associated with Windsor Artists: Then and Now, the “Spotlight on Alfred Fitch Bellows” talk is sponsored by The Loomis Chaffee School and Century 21 William R. Smith Realty.  Cost for the program is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and students, and WHS members $4.  Parking is available in the Windsor Discovery Center parking lot and around Palisado Green. The Windsor Artists:  Then and Now exhibition will be open to the public before and after the talk.  Light refreshments will be served.