Drawn to the Island

I n the 18th Century, before the nation was born, painters didn't come to Long Island; they left it. Robert Feke had to leave Oyster Bay, where he was born in 1705, and travel to Boston and Newport to acquire the polish necessary to sell his portraits. But by the 19th Century, circumstances had changed. New York City was more cosmopolitan, a magnet for both artists and patrons -- a place to find training and sales. And there was the new railroad to carry established artists east, out of the fumes and smells of thronging New York City and onto Long Island, just as trains dispersed Impressionist painters throughout the French countryside.

By Amei Wallach