American Impressionist Painter: Childe Hassam 1859-1935
I have to be honest, I have a minor’s degree in Art History, and I really don’t recall learning about the amazing painter Childe Hassam. I have a feeling we just skipped over American Impressionism, and that sure is sad, because on my Washington DC museum extravaganza this past August I saw a few Childe Hassam paintings that were just truly captivating. You know the kind of paintings that make someone like me actually stop and take a closer look when I’m speed walking through the museum in order to see it all! It turns out Childe Hassam was quite prolific, so there are many many of his works that one can see online. Better yet, get to a museum that has some of his originals and take a look, truly lovely. And now, I’ll share with you the three paintings that made me stop and take a closer look………
At the Smithsonian American Art Museum: In Tanagra, Childe Hassam “painted a complex image of modern life. At the turn of the 20th century, the skyscraper symbolized all that was dynamic and powerful in America.The skyscrapers represent worldly ambition, the lilies, the Hellenistic figurine, the panels of a beeautiful oriental screen suggest delight in the sophisticated cultural aspirations of American society. But as the USA grew in power and prestige, the workers who provided the nation’s muscle also seemed to threaten hassam’s orderly and prosperous world. The artist built his career picturing New York’s moneyed class, the art music, and fine manners surrounding this portrait are a world apart from the immigrants laboring to build the city’s future.”
(text taken from description on wall next to painting.)
A close up of the flowers in Childe Hassam’s Tanagra, truly amazing, check out that reflection on the table!
An even closer look at the flowers (lilies) in Childe Hassam’s Tanagra, 1918.
At the Smithsonian American Art Museum: The South Ledges, Appledore 1913
“Childe Hassam spent many summers on Appledore Island off the coast of Maine. Every year he and a circle of musicians, writers, and other artists gathered in an informal colony based at the home of his friend Celia Thaxter. In Thaxter’s gardens and on the rocky beaches, Hassam used the flickering brushwork and brilliant colors he had adopted in France to capture the dappled light of Appledore’s brief summer. The painting evokes the leisurely seasonal rhythms of America’s privileged families in the last years before WW1. ” (Text taken from painting description on wall.)
At the Smithsonian American Art Museum: The South Ledges, Appledore 1913
At The National Gallery, Washington DC: Poppies,Isles of Shoals 1891, Childe Hassam.
Have I peaked your interest? Go and look at some more of Childe Hassam’s works, and enjoy. And just by the way, Childe Hassam was one of the American Impressionists that called East Hampton home, which means there must be some great light there for painting, shall we go check it out?
