By Carol Sims

WATERBURY  — “I thought I had died and gone to heaven,” said Ann Smith, curator, of her reaction to Mildred Thaler Cohen’s offer to give her collection of 48 American paintings from the 19th and early 20th Century to The Mattatuck Museum. Looking around Mrs Cohen’s gorgeous New York City apartment, Ms Smith saw gems from Albert Bierstadt, Samuel Colman, Ernest Lawson, George Inness, J. Alden Weir, Jasper Cropsey, and John Singer Sargent. Small in scale, the paintings were hung nearly edge to edge, taking up every available wall space.

Ms Cohen and her first husband, Seymour R. Thaler, began collecting in 1969. At that time they lived in Forest Hills, N.Y. Mr Thaler was a lawyer and Mrs Thaler was a librarian. The couple was attracted to the paintings of accomplished American artists. The Thalers were considerably ahead of the market, and they simply loved the art.

Mr Thaler was particularly fond of Hudson River School painters, and Mrs Thaler was drawn to the Tonalists. The collection also includes examples of American Impressionism, Symbolism, Ash Can School, and modern Realism.

In the beginning the husband-wife team relied on the expertise of Sloan and Sloan, and later Kennedy Galleries. Before long, Mrs Thaler Cohen  became an expert in her own right, writing several catalogues on Tonalism. “I am a librarian, you know. That is my training. Everything we have has been thoroughly researched.”

Mrs Cohen remembers that the first piece that they bought was a William Muller. They ended up trading it for something else.

“If I had known that I was going to end up being a collector I would have kept that piece,” she recalled earlier this year. “I don’t even remember what we traded it for. We always bought the highest quality art we could afford. Everything we bought was hung in our home. We never took a piece that we wouldn’t hang in our home.”

As the collection grew, “we measured our walls in inches,” said Mrs Cohen. In 1971 she opened a gallery in her home. After the death of Seymour Thaler, the gallery was moved to New York City. Marbella Gallery was named after the Spanish town of Marbella, where the two had vacationed.

With the exception of a few French Barbizon paintings, the collection is entirely American. Many of the Americans in the collection had studied in Europe and were familiar with the Barbizon painters. “I have a hard time distinguishing between Barbizon and Tonalism – it’s that same direct spiritual interpretation of the landscape,” reflected Mrs Cohen.

A Generous Gift

So how did Mrs Cohen select the Mattatuck for her generous gift? She had never even set foot in the museum before the grand opening this past April for the exhibition of “A Touch of Light,” which showcases the entire Seymour R. Thaler and Mildred Thaler Cohen Collection of American Paintings. Her criteria must have been something other than familiarity with the museum. One thing she knew – it was going to be a Connecticut museum. Her son Fred Thaler, an art dealer from Kent, had recommended the Mattatuck. It was important to Mrs Cohen that her son, daughter, and many grandchildren, who range in age from 1 to 14, have easy access to the memorial collection, a tribute to Seymour Thaler.

When curator Ann Smith of the Mattatuck organized the museum’s Alexander Theobald Van Laer exhibition that ran through February 14, 1999, things started to fall into place for Mrs Cohen. The collector and the curator met in the summer of 1998 as Ms Smith was preparing for the Van Laer exhibition.

Mrs Cohen found Ms Smith’s curatorial skills and integrity impressive. Ms Smith had pulled together works of the “largely forgotten” artist Van Laer from several private and public collections, and wrote the well-researched catalogue for the show, “Alexander Theobald Van Laer: The Lost Landscapes.” Mrs Cohen lent Van Laer’s “In the Woods,” a 20 by 27-inch painting of a sunset, from the Marbella Gallery collection. And Mildred Cohen made up her mind: It would be The Mattatuck. The gift was made in December of 1999.

As a curator, Ann Smith has concentrated specifically on Connecticut artists. While some of the artists in the Thaler Cohen gift collection do not have a Connecticut connection, many of them do. If there is a link to the state, you can rest assured that Ann Smith and Rachel Guest, one of the museum’s assistant curators, will gently assert it.

Guy Wiggins lived in Old Lyme in 1920, and spent winters in New York City, where he became famous for his snowy cityscapes. He later opened the Guy Wiggins art school with winters in New Haven and summers in Old Lyme. Wiggins also had a longstanding connection to Essex, where he moved in 1937.

Everett Shinn, known best as a member of The Eight and a painter of the Ash Can School, was virtually unknown to his neighbors in Roxbury, where he lived during the Forties.

Ernest Lawson painted extensively in the countryside of Connecticut, especially Cos Cob, where he studied with John Henry Twachtman (not in the collection) and J. Alden Weir. Emil Carlsen visited Weir at the Wyndham farm, and had his own home in Falls Village.

Bruce Crane lived in Milford and was one of the Old Lyme artists. Eugene Higgins was in Lyme where he exhibited at the Lyme Art Association, and summered there in the 20s.

George Inness painted in Durham on many occasions. Josephine Paddock exhibited regularly in the state. Van Loon lived in Old Greenwich… The connections are there.

This is a large gift for the Mattatuck, one that any museum in the country would have relished. But unlike some well-endowed museums with large collections languishing in storage, the small scale of the Mattatuck is suited to make the best of the gift. The works will not be put in storage.

“It’s a great collection that will be available for the public, where it can be shared by all,” stated Ms Guest.

When asked if she was considering gifts to other museums, Mrs Cohen indicated this was a singular gift. “This is the collection that was formed with my husband. It is the entire collection,” she said.

The public response to the exhibition has been enthusiastic, according to visitor survey comments: “It is such a great gift people do not know how much of a free education they are getting.” “Great Show!” and “It was thrilling to see so many people at the reception — all of them excited to see the Mattatuck receiving an entire collection.” “Very diverse — something for everyone.”

“A Touch of Light” runs through June 30. Museum hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm, and Sunday noon to 5 pm. The Mattatuck Museum is at 144 West Main Street. For information, call 203/753-0381 extension 10.