Hôtel Baudy Giverny
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The Orchard, 1916, a work by Lucien Abrams
No portrait of him is accessible. The catalogue of his exhibition at the Florence Griswold Museum describes about ten — at Princeton, in Paris about 1894, in a cap in France in 1903, in his studio, with his guitar in 1910 — all in private collections.

Painter · American

Attested lodger

Lucien Abrams

A sketchbook dated 3 September 1898 places him at Giverny; the label beside it says he was staying at the Hôtel Baudy.

  • Dates1870 — 1941
  • NationalityAmerican
  • DisciplinePainter
  • Place of birthLawrence, Kansas

Biography

Lucien Abrams was born at Lawrence, Kansas, on 10 June 1870. He passed through Princeton, then Paris: the Académie Julian, whose tuition receipt of 25 September 1894 survives, and the Académie Colarossi in 1896. He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français, the Salon d’Automne and the Indépendants. He painted Algeria in 1905–1906, Provence, Cassis and Marseille, before settling at Old Lyme, Connecticut, where he became one of the painters of the colony. He owned a Renoir. He died at New Haven on 14 April 1941.

Giverny

He came to Giverny in 1898, between his academy years and his southern journeys. The Terra Foundation ranks him among the painters who frequented both Giverny and Old Lyme — the two colonies of his life.

Relation with the Hôtel Baudy

Two traces, six months apart, and neither is entirely certain. The register carries at entry 654: “Abrams [?], New York, 2–14 mars 1898” — the question marks are Carol Lowrey’s, who is sure neither of her reading of the name nor of the identification. And the Florence Griswold Museum label, beneath a sketchbook dated 3 September 1898, ends with six words: “Abrams stayed at the legendary Hôtel Baudy”. Two different moments of the same year, which do not contradict each other. The sketchbook belongs to a private collection and is not reproduced.

Principal works

The Orchard, 1916 oil on canvas, 26 1/8 × 32 1/8 in. (66.4 × 81.6 cm). Florence Griswold Museum, Gift of Mrs Lucien Abrams. Apple trees in blossom under a pale blue sky, the grass laid in free strokes. Painted eighteen years after Giverny, at Old Lyme, but it is the very motif of the Norman colony. Acc. 1971.18.
Déjeuner en Provence, about 1910 oil on canvas. McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Gift of Mr and Mrs Morgan Chaney. A woman in a straw hat, seen from behind, at a white table laid under an arbour, a carafe, a few fruits. The scene is Provençal, but it is the open-air table of the painters’ colonies. Dimensions and inventory number to be established.
Untitled (Cassis Waterfront) oil on canvas, 18 1/4 × 21 1/4 in. (46.4 × 54 cm), undated. Private collection. Boats drawn up on the quay, the pale façades of the port, the hill behind.
Fruit and Feather Flowers, about 1923 oil on canvas, 25 1/4 × 30 1/4 in. (64.1 × 76.8 cm). Private collection. A large blue earthenware platter with palm-tree decoration, a pot of roses, peaches in a bowl.
Chrysanthemums and Mulberry Platter oil on canvas, 1914. Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, acc. 1954.4. Title and number recorded from the labels of the exhibition “Lucien Abrams: A Cosmopolitan in Connecticut”.

Key points

  • 1870Born — Lawrence, Kansas
  • Giverny1898, a single attested stay
  • 1941Died

Sources

Continue More than a century of history The archive History of the Hôtel Baudy The collections Name index