Slide show of early 20 th century art and artists of Vermont; Selections from
the art collection of Lyman Orton, Proprietor of The Vermont Country Store
Presenters: Lyman Orton and Anita Rafael
Date and time: Thursday, June 29 6 pm
Location: Wardsboro Public Library
Details: Free admission, free parking, facility is universal access and air
conditioned
Email questions: wardsboropubliclibrary@gmail.com
This 50-minute slide show of paintings and prints of Vermont scenes mostly done
before 1960 is presented by Lyman Orton, art collector and proprietor of The
Vermont Country Store. Along with Wardsboro resident and author Anita
Rafael, Lyman narrates the stories behind the artwork of many of the painters who
lived and worked in Vermont between the 1920s and the 1970s.
Lyman Orton’s art collection is featured in the Summer 2023 issue of Yankee
Magazine. In this slide presentation, he begins by telling the story of how he began
buying the art of Vermont about 45 years ago, and how he has made it his mission
to find and repatriate works of art of Vermont that have been scattered across
America.
Some of the artists discussed in the slide show lived in Arlington, Vermont,
including Rockwell Kent, John Atherton, and Mead Schaeffer. Others were among
the group known in the 1920s and ‘30s as “the Dorset Painters” including Wallace
Fahnestock, Dean Fausett, Harriet DeSanchez, and Arthur Jones. Nearly one-fifth
of the paintings in Lyman Orton’s collection are by women who had brilliant
careers in the arts such as Kyra Markham of Halifax, Marion Huse of Pawlet, and
Bernadine Custer of Londonderry. Many of the paintings and prints these artists
and many others did of Vermont have never been seen by the public.
In 2023, Lyman Orton and Anita Rafael co-authored a new book about his art
collection titled: For the Love of Vermont: The Lyman Orton Collection. The
Wardsboro Public Library has a copy in circulation.
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