France , Hartford, and New York

Allen Butler Talcott was born on April 8 th, 1867, to Seth and Sarah Talcott of Hartford, Connecticut. As a young man, he made two journeys to France to study, the first lasting from 1890 to 1894, and the second in 1897. Talcott’s work from this period is strikingly high-keyed in contrast to his later efforts in Old Lyme. Upon returning to the United States, he settled in his native Hartford, where he kept a studio and began building a reputation for superb landscape on the strength of scenes from the nearby Farmington River Valley and the New England coast. He moved his studio to New York in 1901. There he met his wife, Katharine, whose family estate, Hillcrest, stood above the Palisades where Talcott was fond of painting.