When he wasn’t in a brownstone in Chelsea, the painter Thomas Moran occupied a studio on Main Street in East Hampton. “A shingled two-story boardinghouse with a smoking chimney” facing the pond, described the late Robert Long in his 2005 book, De Kooning’s Bicycle. In the late 1870’s, “Moran thought that this could be his Fountainebleau.” Visible from Montauk Highway, the stately “cottage” was in disrepair for years, and has been restored as an exhibition space for Moran’s etchings, and this year, for a Victorian Christmas.
Adhering to COVID procedures, visitors can see only the ground floor, decorated with a spectacular tree, crystal goblets, stockings hung at the mantlepiece, nuts in bowls, antique playing cards, a child’s rocker, and a mannequin dressed in period finery. You can still learn about the etching art in the back room, but up front, and if you are lucky enough to have Richard Barons for a guide, old style Christmas comes live.
My grandson Max fixes on an ivory sailed boat among the many toys situated at the foot of the tree, as Barons relishes a delicious detail: Moran paid a mere $1200 for this prime village property.
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