Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849-1921) came to Dublin in 1888 and attracted such a constellation of artists that the term the Dublin Art Colony came into being, not then but nearly one hundred years later, in an effort to celebrate the deep artistic heritage of this small New Hampshire village. This whirl of artistic activity lasted for about sixty years – including artists such as George de Forest Brush, Joseph Linden Smith, Alexander James, Rockwell Kent, Richard Meryman, and Frank Weston Benson peopled the summer colony, which rose above Dublin Lake. When they weren’t painting, they were partying, mingling with guests such as Mark Twain, the cigar-smoking poet, Amy Lowell, Amelia Earhart, novelist John P. Marquand, John Singer Sargent and a host of others. The mystical beauty and magnetic pull of Mt. Monadnock, first recognized by Emerson and Thoreau, must have been at work then and remains to this day, as new artists continue to flourish in the shadow of this strangely renowned and much beloved mountain. Local author Edie Clark will deliver this talk which provides a thumbnail sketch of the eccentric Abbott Thayer (who was not only created spellbinding paintings but who was also the inventor of camouflage) as well as others of these Dublin artists, whose work can be seen in the MFA, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and as far away as The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia. Edie Clark is a longtime contributor for Yankee magazine and had given frequent talks on a range of subjects, throughout the region. She is the author of five books and her sixth, What There Was Not To Tell, has just been published. Free and open to all thanks to the Friends of the Library.
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