American Impressionism 2014-15

Childe Hassam

Date: c. 1892

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1992.39

Text Entries: Hassam's interpretation of the promenade-strolling or riding in a carriage by the fashionable class-was particularized by the inclusion of a city's distinctive architectural monuments. His portrait of Boston's Commonwealth Avenue is readily identified by the bell tower of the Brattle Square Church (now the First Baptist Church of Boston) designed by H. H. Richardson in 1882, and the spire of Richard Upjohn's Church of the Covenant (built by Central Church Congregational) in 1865-67. The deeply receding space, created by the strong diagonal perspective of the thoroughfare, suggests the cityscape's magnitude. Still, a utopian urban vision is created by the painting's golden atmospheric veil, the result of the artist's blond palette. Returning to his chosen subject of cityscapes upon leaving Paris in 1889, Hassam developed a tendency to depict the urban landscape through a fragmented composition, palpable atmospheric elements, and loose brushwork resulting in a distinctive immediacy.

Childe Hassam

Date: 1887

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1993.20

Text Entries: During his first year in Paris, Hassam devoted himself to life drawing studies at the Académie Julian and created this large painting to attract notice at the juried annual salon. In this Latin Quarter street scene near Luxembourg Garden, Hassam's composition employs a dramatic orthogonal perspective, sweeping view, palpable misty atmosphere and precisely rendered figures in the foreground, all united in a blond tonality. Ignoring the picturesque sites and concentrating on the figures of Parisian laborers, Hassam's work lies somewhere between a critique of the complex realties of city life and a presentation of an urban utopia where all classes harmoniously occupy the same public spaces. To Hassam's delight, his adaptation of a rain-slick city street, based on his earlier cityscapes of Boston, was accepted at the Salon-no small feat for a new arrival to the Paris art scene. As he established his career in the United States after 1889, Hassam repeatedly exhibited this early work at public venues, including the prestigious 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Childe Hassam

Date: 1893

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1999.67

Text Entries: Hassam's inclusion in the nation's largest juried art exhibit held at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, which marked the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas, was a sign of his established artistic reputation. He was awarded a bronze medal for six major paintings, including Cab Station, Rue Bonaparte, and a group of watercolors shown in the Fine Arts Palace. Executed in the summer of 1893, this canvas depicts the majestic dome of the Crystal Palace. The building dominated the skyline of the park-like Wooded Island, but it was a minor architectural statement in the vast panoply of French Beaux-Arts buildings that comprised the famous "White City." Hassam's free brushwork and high-key color convey a sense of immediacy and a spontaneous response to the excitement of the Fair awash in brilliant sunshine.