Hooker’s party crossing what’s now Talcott Mountain and tony Farmington, about to settle what’s now not-so-tony Hartford. Frederic Edwin Church, Hooker and Company Journeying through the Wilderness from Plymouth to Hartford, in 1636, 1846, oil on canvas.(Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art)

At the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hooker’s Party, judges in a cave, and an old oak tree point to 1776.

Over the past year I’ve written close to 20 pieces about the art of the American Revolution and the preservation of its heritage. With the subjects so vast, I can’t cover everything. So, apologies to the Carolinas, Georgia, tiny Delaware and tinier Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. I’ll get to you when the next revolution comes. Today, I’ll do one last story about Connecticut, the Nutmeg State. After all, another of my natal state’s nicknames is the Constitution State. I’ll start, and this might seem circuitous, with the Hudson River School’s dean, Frederic Church (1826–1900).

Church never painted a Revolutionary War ...

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