One of the best long weekend pursuits in Maine during midwinter is to see art masterworks by American artists inspired by the Maine landscape, from Frederic Edwin Church and Fitz Henry Lane to Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Marguerite Zorach and three generations of the Wyeth family. Or maybe your tastes run to Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, or perhaps early American silver and furniture?

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Winslow Homer, “Eight Bells” 1887. Collection of the Portland Museum of Art. Museum purchase with support from the Peggy and Harold Osher Acquisition Fund and partial gift of Mr. and Mrs. Vaughan W. Pratt, 2014.3

 

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Islander. James Wyeth, 1976. Bequest of Betsy James Wyeth Trust, 2021.1.9. Farnsworth Art Museum.

You can see all of this and so much more thanks to The Maine Art Museum Trail, an association of nine of the finest museums in the state. They include the Portland Museum of Art, the Farnsworth Art Museum,  the Colby College Museum of Art, the Bates College Museum of Art, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the University of Maine Museum of Art and the Zillman Museum of Art.

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George Caleb Bingham, Landscape with Fisherman, c. 1845-1850, Oil on canvas, 25 in. x 30 in., The Lunder Collection, 2013.015 Colby College Museum of Art.

 

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Christopher Street Pier #2 (Crossed Legs), 1976 by Peter Hujar Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

In summer, they’re joined by the seasonal Abbe Museum, the Ogunquit Museum of American Art and the Monhegan Museum of Art and History.  That’s some 80,000 works of art, a 350 mile loop for passionate art lovers and a terrific way to get into the heart of Maine. Visit The Maine Art Museum Trail.

 

The Collection Online from Portland Museum of Art on Vimeo.

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