Allen Butler Talcott

Allen Butler Talcott (1867-1908)

(“A Hartford Biography”)

© Gary W. Knoble, 2014

In his short life, Allen Butler Talcott, a descendant of a founder of Hartford, became one of the most talented painters of the Harford and Old Lyme art colonies.

He was born April 8, 1867 in Hartford, Connecticut to Seth and Sarah Talcott. His father Seth ran an apothecary. Seth was a prosperous man, descended from John Talcott who was one of Harford’s founders. The prominent mountain to the west of Hartford is named Talcott Mountain, after one of his ancestors. His family included many artistic people. His brother Charles was an art collector. Two of Charles’ sons were architects, another son a sculptor, and his daughter and art lover. His uncle John Talcott was a founder of the New Britain Museum of American Art.

Talcott attended Hartford High School, graduating in 1886. Many of his school- books, which have been preserved, contain his early sketches. He attended Trinity College, receiving a diploma in 1890. He also studied art part time with Dwight Tryon at the Hartford Art Society. Around this time he must have met Henry Cooke White who had been studying with Tryon since 1875. In 1889 he also studied for a short time at the Art Students League in New York. At this time his family lived at 867 Asylum Street in Hartford.

In 1891 he made his first of many trips to Europe. In spite of his artistic family, his father opposed his studies in Europe. But, his mother approved and paid for the trip He returned in the same year to study at the Academie Julian with Jean-Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant. Frank DuMond, a lifelong friend, was also a student there at the time.

On January 5, 1893 he was mentioned in the Hartford Courant, probably for the first time. He had several paintings in the January exhibition of the Society of Hartford Artists at the Atheneum, that he had sent from Europe.

“ A young Hartford artist, now studying in Paris, has had a great many flattering things said about him since his three contributions have been hanging on the wall of the galleries. He is Allen Talcott and he has sent a woman’s head, study, a lavoir scene and a view of an old Norman church. While there are, perhaps, points where they are open to criticism, there are many more where they show artistic spirit and skill that promises very well.”

He remained in Europe for about four years returning to Hartford in 1895, living at 863 Asylum Ave. His studio was nearby at Pliny Court. In 1896, a Wadsworth Atheneum exhibition included him, along with the most prominent Hartford painters of the time, William Gedney Bunce, Robert Bolling Brandegee, Charles Noel Flagg, and Walter Grifffin. Bunce, Brandegee, and Flagg were all at least 20 years his senior, while Griffin was six years older. Brandegee wrote a review of the show praising Talcott’s paintings.

“It is with especial pleasure that we note the beautiful landscape by Allen Talcott in the southwest corner of the gallery. We make bold to assert that this picture has many of the symptoms of a great artist. It is luminous and of a fine breadth. In fact, we feel pleased all over to have and artist of Mr. Talcott’s capacity translate our beautiful Connecticut into immortality.” Robert Brandegee undated letter to the editor, The Hartford Post 1896

In 1897, Talcott made his last trip to Europe. He and his friend from the Academie Julian, DuMond, are said to have rented Vincent van Gough’s house in Arles.

He returned to Hartford after the trip and in 1900 established a studio on Sigourney Street. His friend White had a studio nearby on Niles Street. He and Henry Cook White often took horse and buggy trips to Bloomfield and Newington, nearby villages to paint the local pastoral scenery. Nelson White, Henry’s son wrote of Talcott:

“He was very sensitive and, when he was occasionally rejected by juries, he became depressed. He would call upon my father, whose studio was on Niles Street a few blocks from Allen’s on Sigourney Street in Hartford. My father told me that he would take Allen for a walk around the block trying to encourage him and telling him that, as he had been accepted many time, an occasional rejection was of no importance.”

He also painted frequently in nearby Farmington. One of his paintings, done around 1900, is titled “Route 10 at the Turn of the Century”. He would undoubtedly have visited Brandegee at his Farmington home.

In 1901, Talcott moved to New York and began summering in Old Lyme, Connecticut. In 1902 he was one of the first artists to begin staying at Florence Griswold’s house, attracted there by Henry Ward Ranger. In 1903 he bought property in Old Lyme overlooking the Connecticut River on the way to Hamburg Cove. Nelson White describes Talcott at the time as a stocky, rather heavy man, about 5” 7-8” in height.

Although he was no longer living in Hartford, he still had family and friends there. He remained active in the Hartford art scene through his Hartford friends, Bunce, Brandegee, Charles Noel Flagg, Louis Orr, and Henry White. In 1903 he participated in another show at the Atheneum, again with Bunce, Flagg, and Griffin entitled “Four of Connecticut’s Best Known Artists”. Also in 1903, his uncle John Talcott donated a substantial sum of money to establish the New Britain Museum of American Art, which now holds many of Talcott’s works. In 1904, Flagg included him in the Connecticut Pavilion at the St. Louis World’s Fair, where he won a silver medal. In the same year his mother died in Hartford.

The years 1904-08 were the prime years of his involvement with the Old Lyme art colony. He participated in many shows and collaborated with fellow Hartford painters White and James McManus on one of the door panels in the dining room of the Florence Griswold House.

In 1905 he married Katherine Agnew.

In 1907 he had the only solo show of his short life at the Kraushaar Galleries in New York.

His son Agnew was born February 20, 1908. A few months later, on June 1, 1908, Allen Talcott died in Old Lyme. His death certificate shows he died of a heart attack and sunstroke. He is buried in the family plot at the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford. A New York Herald article, published shortly after his death commented:

“In looking at his dignified and joyous serene pictures one feels that his art is the expression not only of all the beauty he saw but of his own high ideals.” (June 28, 1908)

“To one who believes that the artist’s heart speaks from the canvas, Allen Butler Talcott was a striking example. He loved beauty and life, also his fellow man. He believed that the whole world, despite all the evils of the day, was getting better; he never spoke or thought ill of anyone: all his pictures express.” (The Representative Citizens Connecticut Biographical Memorial, American Historical Society, New York 1916)

After his death many of his paintings were stored in specially made slotted trunks at the Old Lyme house. During the hurricane of 1944, the storage space was flooded but luckily the trunks floated and the paintings survived undamaged, for the most part. For having such a short life, he left a lasting legacy.

“Allen Butler Talcott (1867-1908), On-Line Learning, The Fox Chase website

“Allan Butler Talcott”, Wikipedia

Ferguson, Charles B. and White, Nelson Cook, “Alan Butler Talcott (1867-1908) Painter of Landscapes, New Britain Museum, 1983

The Hartford Courant Archives, 1/5/1893

Leach, Charles, “Farmington Artists and their Times – Giverny in Connecticut: Part I” 2007, Farmington Historical Society

Newman, Joseph F., “A Life Unfinished; Works by Allen Butler Talcott, (1867-1908”, 2008, The Cooley Gallery