Dawson Dawson-Watson, a charismatic English artist, came to Hartford in 1893 after time in Giverny under the aura of Claude Monet and introduced the radical French style of Impressionism through teaching at the city’s leading art school, public lectures, and exhibitions of works he painted in or near Farmington, where he lived for a time. Hartford was at first bewildered and even shocked by his art, but local artists embraced it before he left a few years later and eventually settled in Texas. Born in 1864 and dying in 1939, he brought Hartford its first strong sense of the modern in art. His work differed sharply from the richly detailed, deeply colored, carefully balanced Hudson River School landscapes long loved in America through much of the 19th century, so his pastel-colored views of river and trees, seen close up with diffuse light, off-center focus, little depth, and no horizon, appeared bizarre in the 1890s. Over time, people came to understand that Impressionist painters were not careless but were deliberately creating subtle designs in the open air out of light, color, and form to share intimate experiences of a particular place at a particular time. The site lies on the bed of an abandoned railroad being converted by the Department of Environmental Protection and the towns of Burlington, Canton, Farmington, and Simsbury into a multi-use recreational trail; this 16-mile section will connect to the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail to form a 26-mile loop. Here the trail runs directly along the Farmington River, one of Connecticut’s great natural resources, recognized by the U.S. Department of the Interior as a national wild and scenic river and protected from many projects that would degrade its quality, while public agencies, towns, and local organizations continue preserving land in the watershed for future generations.