WATERBURY — A gallery talk by Mattatuck Museum curator Ann Smith will introduce the new exhibit “A Touch of Light” on Thursday, April 6, at the museum following a public reception which begins at 5 pm. The exhibit, a spectacular collection of 48 paintings representing American Totalist masters, was a recent gift to the museum’s permanent collection by Mildred Thaler Cohen of New York.

The paintings are part of the private collection Mrs Cohen and her first husband, Seymour R. Thaler, assembled 30 years ago. It was one of the first private collections to focus on American artistic accomplishments.

Represented in the exhibit are works by Albert Bierstadt, Ralph Blakelock, George Inness, Jasper Cropsey, Ernest Lawson, Everett Shinn, John Singer Sargent, Elihu Vedder, Worthington Whittridge and J. Alden Weir. The extraordinary gift is the largest acquisition to its collection the museum has ever received.

Admission for the reception and lecture is $5.

Additional public programs planned to complement the exhibit include: “A Curious Aggregation: J. Alden Weir and His Friends,” a lecture by Hildegard Cummings, a retired curator of education at William Benton Museum, on Thursday, April 27. The program will present insight into Weir, a leading figure in America’s art world at the turn of the century and a contemporary who knew many of the other artists represented in the show. The talk will explore Weir’s art and ideas, along with those of his diverse friends and fellow artists.

On May 4, “The Lure of the Wild,” a lecture by Raechel Guest, an assistant curator of Mattatuck Museum, will examine how artists of the 19th and 20th Centuries responded to the increasing industrialization around them by exploring the beauty and power of the natural world in their art.

The lecture programs begin at 7 pm, and suggested donation is $5. Reservations for the lectures can be made by calling the museum.

“A Touch of Light” will run through June 30. Suggested admission to view the exhibit is $4 for adults, with children admitted free. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm; and Sunday, noon to 5 pm. For further information, call the museum at 203/753-0381. The Mattatuck Museum is at 144 West Main Street in Waterbury.