William Merritt Post
William Merritt Post specialized in picturing the country stream. He was born in 1856 and as an young man lived in New York City. He was attracted to wooded areas, especially those with water, and in 1879, upon visiting a marshy region, he noted, "I know if I was an artist that this region would be one of the first places I should strike for." (The Mattatuck Museum. "William Merritt Post and the Art of the Country Stream." Exhibition Book, 1997.) Within six months, Post was taking drawing lessons.
Stone Bridge, Bantam Connecticut is a small painting that hangs in Post's studio.
Beginning in 1908, Post and his family spent the summers in Bethlehem, Connecticut, and in 1912 they moved permanently to next door Morris. Post called his 1770 farm Applewood and renovated the house, adding a studio. The Bantam River runs at the back of the property, to the west, and offered Post any everyday vista upon the seasonal changes in his chosen subject. In his later years, Post specialized in highly colorful sunset landscapes over wooded streams, exactly the view he had from his studio.
