Maxfield Parrish,  Circe's Palace (1908) Private collection.

All of us are profoundly affected by the landscapes we inhabit.  From the land we derive not only our basic food and shelter, but also a sense of who we are as individuals, communities and nations.  We can see the force nature exercises on us in the work of the artists in this exhibition.  We can see it, for example, in the exploration of Alaska and Newfoundland because these paintings can speak powerfully about the dangers faced by intrepid explorers. We can feel this force in the power of icebergs to crush a ship in the paintings that William Bradford created, in a spectacular mountain range by Bierstadt, in the images of the West by Remington, in the march of the West's discovery and exploration in the powerful image by Mort Kunstler. A landscape we inhabit can even be the intimate portrayal of the depiction of our home and the security we feel there nestled within the embracing and protective arms of our mother such as the images presented here by Robert and Bessie Potter Vonnoh.

Our celebration of "The Power of Place" will be the first exhibit the Cornish Colony Museum presents to its visitors from its own site after the recent acquisition of the building that houses its collection.  This purchase is an important and integral step towards our survival as a museum.  We sought works that would embody the energy and power that a place can possess for the viewer.  Owning our own land and building allows us not only to be more confident about the museum's success but also to approach future lenders and donors to lend or donate art works that continue this museum's vision. Probably one of the most exhilarating examples of this reality for me personally was the loan by the Hood Museum in Dartmouth College to this exhibit of one of the iconic Parrish landscapes depicting this area. The 1948 painting entitled Hunt Farm is of a local farm in Windsor, Vermont and was donated by Parrish to the college. It is totally fitting and emotionally satisfying to me that this painting should be included in this exhibit.

We are profoundly aware that because we are only one of three fine art museums in Vermont, we must exert our energy, expertise and strength in representing the best examples that this area had to offer both during its golden era called the American Renaissance and what it brings, but also to the art world today.  The modern artists we have included here have been inspired by the examples of those before us.

ALMA GILBERT-SMITH
Founder and Director