For years, the most important painting in Heckscher Park was kept rolled up in a garage on Long Island. The Heckscher Museum of Art's account says a housepainter named Thomas Constantine came to own George Grosz's Eclipse of the Sun and stored it that way. The painting was later rediscovered and shown at the Harbor Gallery in Cold Spring Harbor. Eva Gatling, the museum's first professional director, then raised the money to buy it.
Local residents, schoolchildren and then-Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller gave money, more than 213 contributors in all. The museum bought the canvas in 1968 for $15,000. The museum's centennial history calls it the first work acquired for the collection.
Grosz painted it in 1926, so it turns 100 this year. The museum has built Eclipse of the Sun Now around it, running through May 9, 2027. From October 9 to 12, the Huntington Chamber's Long Island Fall Festival fills the park outside with a carnival, vendors and live music. The busiest weekend of the year in Heckscher Park surrounds the one thing in it the town paid for directly. But you can see both the festival and the painting on only two afternoons.
The Painter Who Lived Here
Grosz did not just paint something Huntington later bought. He was a neighbor. He was born in Berlin in 1893 and became a political artist after World War I. Eclipse of the Sun mocks the corruption, violence and apathy he saw in the German government and society of the 1920s. After the Nazis labeled him a "degenerate" artist in the 1930s, he left for the United States. He and his family moved to Huntington in 1947.
He lived in the cottage of the Hilaire Farm Estate and turned it into a two-story studio where he worked and taught. He stayed until 1959, when he went back to Berlin. He died there a few months later. While in Huntington he kept teaching at the Art Students League in New York City and gave private classes at home. The Town of Huntington's account adds that he also taught at the Heckscher through the Huntington Township Art League. So the museum that now shows his best-known painting is also a building where he taught.
The museum says its community fundraising campaign began after his death. The goal was to keep Eclipse of the Sun open to the public as a cornerstone of the collection. In 2019, the museum held 16 works by Grosz in its permanent collection.
What Hangs Around It Now
The centennial show doesn't treat the painting as a relic. Eclipse of the Sun Now hangs it beside other work by Grosz and by today's artists. The pieces come from the Heckscher's own collection and the Art Bridges Foundation, and they deal with war, immigration, civil rights, mass media and the environment. Karli Wurzelbacher, PhD, the museum's chief curator, organized it with Meredith A. Brown, PhD, consulting curator of contemporary art. TBR News Media's preview of the September 26 opening counted more than 50 works.
"Eclipse of the Sun Now celebrates the power of art—to offer solace, to foster resistance, and to channel hope."
That is the museum's own description of the show. Admission is free. The Heckscher is open Thursday through Sunday, noon to 5 pm, and closed Monday through Wednesday. Those hours set the limits for festival weekend.
Four Festival Days, Two Shared Afternoons
The Long Island Fall Festival runs over Columbus Day weekend. Put its schedule next to the museum's hours and the overlap is small.
| Day | Festival hours | Museum hours | When both are open |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday, Oct. 9 | 5 pm to 10 pm, carnival only | Noon to 5 pm | No overlap |
| Saturday, Oct. 10 | 11 am to 10 pm | Noon to 5 pm | Noon to 5 pm |
| Sunday, Oct. 11 | 11 am to 10 pm | Noon to 5 pm | Noon to 5 pm |
| Monday, Oct. 12 | 11 am to 5 pm | Closed | No overlap |
On Friday, the carnival opens at 5 pm, the same minute the museum closes. On Monday, the holiday, the festival runs until 5 pm but the museum is closed, as it is every Monday. That leaves Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 pm, as the only times a visit can include the rides and the painting.
Several festival features fall inside that window. Newton Shows runs the carnival and sells pay-one-price wristbands. Buying them in advance saves $10, and pre-sale ends five hours before each day's opening. The beer, wine and spirits tent has moved this year. It now sits across from the main stage and serves drinks sourced locally by Six Harbors Brewing Co. It opens at 11 am each day and faces the Chapin Rainbow Stage. Street vendors set up only on Saturday and Sunday, from 11 am to 6 pm.
Sunday Has the Most to Offer
Sunday packs the most into one walkable stretch, because the Huntington Farmers Market also runs that morning. TBR News Media's current listing puts it at the Elm Street parking lot, 228 Main St., from 8 am to 12:30 pm, every Sunday through November.
A Sunday on October 11 can run like this:
- Farmers market on Elm Street, starting at 8 am.
- Festival gates and the Six Harbors tent open at 11 am in Heckscher Park.
- The museum opens at noon. Get to Eclipse of the Sun Now before the afternoon crowd builds.
- The meatball-eating contest starts at 3 pm on the Chapin Stage.
- The museum closes at 5 pm, and the carnival keeps running into the evening.
Saturday works the same way without the market or the contest. Saturday is also the day of a different Halloween option a few miles away. Halloween House Long Island, at 777 Pulaski Road in Greenlawn, holds its K-Pop Demon Day on October 10.
After the Rides Leave
The festival is over on October 12, but the museum's centennial program is just getting started. The Annual Benefit on Thursday, October 15, is billed as a centennial celebration. It features performances by Mary Kate Morrissey and Morgan Dudley, with cocktails at 6:30 pm and dinner at 7:30 pm. A shuttle between the museum's exhibition and Oheka runs from 5 to 6:30 pm.
The rest of the fall calendar near the park:
- October 15, 17 and 18: The Paramount has Foghat's Twang & Bang 2026 tour, then Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, then The Damned's Final Damnation 50.
- October 31: The Heckscher holds a free Halloween activity for kids. The Paramount hosts Sessions Presents Halloween Haunted House with DJ Theo and friends and guest Ultra Naté.
- November 1: The museum's free Día de los Muertos Family Celebration runs from noon to 5 pm with art activities and live mariachi music.
The museum also says monthly hands-on family art-making and a yearlong series of artist talks, conversations and performances will draw on the exhibition. It has not posted dates or names for that series yet. It has also announced a celebration for the show's final week in May 2027, with details to come.
Free Admission Has a Stated End Date
The exhibition runs through May 9, 2027. The free admission that comes with it rests on a grant from Bank of America, and the museum describes that commitment as running through 2026. The museum has not posted what admission will cost after that. October, November and December are the months when the centennial show is confirmed free. On a festival Saturday or Sunday, the painting more than 200 neighbors paid to bring home in 1968 is a short walk from the carnival.
Kieran Rodgers works from Huntington and follows what happens on these blocks all year, from the farmers market on Elm Street to the galleries in Heckscher Park. If you're thinking about how life around the park fits your next move, Schedule Your Private Consultation with Team Rodgers.
