Two jewels of New England art museums

Farnsworth Art Museum, in Rockland, on the Maine coast.

The Florence Griswold Museum, in Old Lyme, Conn.

"Summer Evening'' (oil on canvas), by Childe Hassam, 1886. Collection of the Florence Griswold Museum.

New England has many small but distinguished art museums. One is the Farnsworth Art Museum (actually it's not that small), in the  surprisingly important art mecca of Rockland, Maine. Among other works, it has paintings by Andrew Wyeth and his son Jamie -- who are famous for, among other things, their Maine-set paintings. Though the Wyeths were and are from Chadds Ford, Pa., they have long summered in the Pine Tree State.  

Another jewel is the Florence Griswold Museum, in Old Lyme, Conn. The museum is in a gorgeous classical building that was once home to the Lyme Art Colony -- an important place for American Impressionist painters such as Childe Hassam. They liked being so close to New York, with the biggest art market in America, and on the generally beautiful coast of Long Island Sound,. Those who take Amtrak can confirm its beauty.