Itinerant artist show at Seven Hearths

KENT — Likely to have been overlooked and forgotten by art historians, the works of an itinerant 19th-century artist, Fritz Vogt, have been located, appreciated and researched by area collector Frank Tosto and they are now on display, appropriately framed, as the latest important exhibit mounted by the Kent Historical Society at Seven Hearths Museum.

The exhibit is titled “A Sense of Place, 1890-1900.” It lays out in chronological order the wandering upstate New York route traveled by itinerant German-immigrant artist Vogt, an eccentric, who plied his talent for sketching homesteads town to town throughout the Mohawk Valley in return for shelter and sustenance.

Little is likely ever to be known about him, except for his nine-year record of whimsical folk drawings left behind, collected and preserved by Tosto. Vogt’s life ended in an almshouse in upstate New York, where he died penniless and was buried in a pauper’s field.

A remarkable 31 of Vogt’s drawings are on display in the current exhibit, framed by Tosto using glass from the period in tribute to the life of the artist.

“To have these pictures in this building makes both the art and the setting come to life in visual synergy,” said KHS Executive Director Ron Marasco. The connection to the town of Kent and its valued sensibilities is inescapable when viewing each remarkable depiction of agrarian society and lifestyle from a past century.

Marasco added that the setting is why Tosto allowed this exhibit idea to proceed. Most of his collection is housed at the Fenimore Museum in Cooperstown, New York. The idea of displaying the work in a homestead setting at Seven Hearths was appealing to him.

“If you have not been to the exhibit, you are missing out on a treasure,” said George-Ann Gowan, a Kent artist who was viewing the exhibit for the second time. She added that the exhibit is enhanced by the presence and expertise of Tosto.

The exhibit will be open until October 15 each Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tosto indicated that he expects to be at Seven Hearths during most, if not all, of the open days to meet with visitors and discuss the exhibit. Marasco said that the exhibit is also open by appointment by calling the historical society. For more information, go to: www.kenthistoricalsociety.org.

Vogt’s story continues to unfold. On Saturday, Sept. 23, beginning at Seven Hearths at 1 p.m., Melanie Marks of CT House Histories of Fairfield will speak about her research into the almshouse in upstate New York where Vogt died. And, bringing it home to Kent, she will talk about her discovery that there was a similar almshouse in Kent and how she discovered the deed that led her to finding the Kent almshouse’s actual foundation that still exists in town.