The Museum holds a comprehensive collection of European art as well as American fine and decorative art. The permanent collection is comprised of approximately 15,000 objects, a key strength of which is European works on paper, including J.A.D. Ingres' Study for Madame Moitessier Standing, in graphite, as well as works by Frederic Leighton, Francois Boucher, Nicholas Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Charles LeBrun, and Tiepolo.
The Lyman Allyn holds a noted collection of 19th century American paintings, ranging from the Hudson River School to the Aesthetic Movement and Impressionism, including Thomas Cole’s Mount Aetna from Taormina (1844), Frederic Edwin Church’s Study for New England Scenery (1850), and John F. Kensett’s oval Bash Bish Falls (1851), plus Winslow Homer’s tile painting The Shepherdess (1878).
There is also a sizeable collection of 18th-century American paintings, works on paper, and decorative arts, most notably silver and furniture. John Singleton Copley’s three studies for The Siege of Gibraltar (c.1785-86), two works by Benjamin West, and Winthrop Chandler’s portrait of Eunice Huntington Devotion and Her Daughter (1772) form the core of this collection. In furniture, the Museum is particularly strong in 18th-century New England examples.
The Lyman is on the CT Art Trail.