CHILDE HASSAM (1859-1935)

AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK

There is a lot of nonsense theory about why Childe Hassam is so popular. Some see him as a late arrival to the Impressionists banquet, some find him a blindly cheerful and, of necessity, shallow chronicler of his times, others portray him the “party boy” of artists’ societies, who thereby bought his way into exposure to collectors, a sort of charlatan of the salons. It seems a much more basic issue. He was a tremendously talented painter who found the world to his liking, and conversely the world found Childe Hassam to its liking. The bald optimism of his paintings is overridingly contagious. The public loves his work.

Warren Adelson, in his perceptive essay on the development of Hassam’s style refers to greater Boston at the time of Hassam’s youth as the Athens of America. Great artists of all types were encouraged and supported. The artist’s earliest training came in the form of an apprenticeship at the hands of George E. Johnson, the engraver. His first formal training would have been at the Lowell Institute and later at the Boston Art Club where he studied with Ignatz Gaugengigl. The work completed in the artist’s early years reflected the French Barbizon school in subject matter and style with weighty, dark tonal palettes. It is a far cry from the work that would make him a preeminent American Impressionist.

In 1883, pursuing additional insight, Hassam made his first trip to Europe visiting England, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and Spain all the while working in watercolor. It is on this journey that the young artist must have had full exposure to the closing efforts of the pioneering work of the French Impressionists who would have their final exhibition in 1886. It was in late that year that the newly married artist returns to Paris to study at the Academie Julian. After several years of study Hassam left complaining that the Academie was too confining and left little room for originality. But for Hassam the dye had been cast. Much of his finest work relates directly to the work of the French Impressionists, despite Hassam’s statements to the contrary. These principal years of exposure left his work marked by bright colors, hurried, short brushstroke and an emphasis on the play of light that was common to the work of Monet, Degas and Caillebotte.

Through the remainder of his career he enjoyed perfecting the composition, framing, perspective and pictorial techniques shared by the leaders of the French movement. An examination of his later work will find relationships to Post-Impressionism, Symbolism and the modern movements developing in the early 20th century, but his finest work is plainly associated with exposures to the Impressionists work which he viewed in his years of study in Paris.

AWARDS & AFFILIATIONS

AWARDS

1889 Bronze, Paris Expostion Worlds Fair
1892 Gold, Munich International Art Expo.
1892 Gold, Philadelphia Art Club
1893 Medal, Chicago Exposition
1893 Gold, Cleveland Art Association
1895 Webb Price, Society of American Artists
1896 Medal, Boston Art Club
1898 Medal, Carnegie Institute
1899 Gold, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
1900 Silver, Paris Salon
1904 Gold, Buffalo
1904 Gold, St Louis Exposition
1905 Gold, Carnegie Institute
1905 Clarke Prize & Gold, National Academy
1906 Prize, Carnegie Institute
1906 Carnegie Prize, Society of American Artists
1906 Lippincott Prize, PAFA
1910 Sesan Gold Medal, PAFA
1912 Evans Prize, American Water Color Society
1915 Medal, Philadelphia Art Club
1919 Hudnut Prize, American Watercolor Club
1924 Gold, Philadelphia Art Club
1926 1st Altman Prize, National Academy
1931 Gold, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
1931 Pijur Prize, Brooklyn Society of Etchers
1934 Gold, N.Y. Art Dealer’s Association
1935 Saltus Gold, National Academy
1935 Elliott Memorial Prize, Newport Art Club

COLLECTIONS

Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH
American Academy of Arts & Letters, NY
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX
Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC
Crocker Museum, Sacramento, CA
High Museum, Atlanta, GA
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA
National Academy of Design Museum, New York, NY
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
vOakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Sketch Club, Philadelphia, PA
Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA
St. Louis Museum of Art, St. Louis, MO
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
The White House, Washington, D.C.
Wadsworth Atheneun Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

CHRONOLOGY

1959 Born October 17th in Dorrchester, MA
1878 - 1881 Apprentices to wood engraver George Johnson, Boston
1881 Studies Drawing and Anatomy at Lowell Institute, Boston
1882 Joins Group Exhibit with Boston Art Club-1st Public Exhibition
1882 William & Everett Gallery, Boston-1st Solo Exhibition
1883 Travels to Europe with Edmund Henry garret, fellow artist
1884 Marries Katleen Maud Doane, known as “Maud”
1886 Returns to Paris with Maud, studies at Academie Julian
1889 Sails with Maud to New York where he takes studio
1890 Finds critical and financial success both side of the Atlantic
1893 Receives prizes in Painting & Watercolor-Columbian Expo.
1897 Visits Naples, Florence, Paris, London
1898 Works with others to establish “The Ten”
1902 Elected Member of the National Academy of Design
1903 Visits Old Lyme and meets Florence Griswold
1904 Two Gold Medals (oils & pastels) Louisiana Purchase Expo
1909 Metropolitan acquires 1st Hassam painting
1910 Returns to Paris with Maud to London, Netherlands, Spain
1913 Exhibits at famous “Armory Show” with thirteen works
1914 Goes west to San Francisco for Pan Pacific International Expo.
1915 Commences his famous “Flag Series”
1919 Corcoran hosts the last exhbition of “The Ten”
1920 Purchases home at Willow Bend, where he will till his death
1927 Travels west via New Orleans, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara
1931 Metropolitan makes silent film for 1-reel filem on Hassam
1934 Takes ill in famous chill of ‘34
1935 Dies August 27th at Willow Bend

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Adams, Adeline. Childe Hassam. New York: American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1938.
2. Adelson, Warren, et al. Childe Hassam, Impressionist. Abbeville Press, 1999.
3. Bullock, Margaret E. Childe Hassam: Impressionist in the West. Portland: Portland Art Museum, 2005.
4. Donelson, Hoopes. Childe Hassam. New York, Watsun-Guptil, 1979.
5. Fielding, Mantle. Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptures & Engravers. Green Frams, Ct: Modern Books and Crafts, 1974.
6. Fort, Ilene. Flag Paintings of Childe Hassam. Los Angeles County Museum of Art., 1988.
7. Gerdts, William. Impressionist New York. New York: Artabras/Abbeville Press, 1994.
8. Hiesinger, Ulrich. W. Childe Hassam, American Impressionit. Prestel, 1999.
9. Hughs, Edan Milton. Artists in California. Third ed. Sacramento, Calif.: Crocker Art Museum, 2002.
10. Park Curry, David. Childe Hassam, An Island Garden Revisited. New Haven, Yale, 2005.
11. Weinberg, H. Barbara, et al. Childe Hassam, American Impressionist. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004.
12. This work first presented on the web partially completed June 16, 2006 at 9pm