Childe Hassam

Childe Hassam

Date: c. 1883

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

Object number: 1989.21

Text Entries: Long before his first-hand exposure to the Paris art scene, Hassam had absorbed the naturalistic principles of the French Barbizon painters championed by Boston's illustrious artist William Morris Hunt (1824-1879). French Peasant Girl is an early oil painting produced by the young artist during his first trip to Europe in 1883. Choosing a Barbizon theme of pastoral imagery rendered in vibrant color, Hassam explored the effects of light, atmosphere and deeply receding space, artistic concerns he revisited throughout his career. While he never returned to rural subjects, Hassam would continue to explore the theme of a solitary woman standing in contemplation in a series of interiors exemplified in the 1915 etching The White Kimono.

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: 1889

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

Object number: 1991.2

Text Entries: Hassam captured the centennial festivities of Bastille Day, the French equivalent to the United States Independence Day celebration, in Montmartre near his studio. The dominant placement of the tricolored flag, a large, colorful rectangle, set against the curvilinear green hills-les buttes-is complemented by the figures of women, whose picturesque white caps indicate the "Frenchness" of the location for an American audience. Hassam executed a series of flag paintings, most of which were done in May 1917, as part of the patriotic sentiment aroused during World War I. Les Buttes, Montmartre, July 14, 1889 was exhibited in February 1918 with thirty canvases that celebrated Old Glory. Hassam's depiction of the French tricolore is one his first explorations of flags as a national symbol and an artistic investigation of impressionism expressing colorful movement.

Childe Hassam

Date: 1889

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

Object number: 1992.40

Text Entries: Maude Doan, who married Hassam in 1884, accompanied him to Paris when he began his academic studies in 1886. Neither a poor student nor a rebellious bohemian artist, Hassam maintained a studio and spacious apartment complete with "French maid." The Hassams' second apartment-cum-studio at 35 Boulevard Rochechouart in Montmartre, the heart of the French art world, is charmingly portrayed in Mrs. Hassam and Her Sister. Within the genteel environment, a seated Maude reads sheet music as her sister Mrs. George Cotton plays the piano. A reference to the adjoining studio is supplied through the artist's paintings that decorate the walls. Hassam was particularly proud of his atelier, stating " . . . that one side is all glass nearly to the floor, so that I can paint a figure here the same as on the street. That is to say a grey day effect." Exposure to contemporary French art noticeably lightened Hassam's palette while impressionist brushwork began to emerge in his technique. Equally significant is the depiction of a woman in a culturally refined environment-a theme that becomes one of the most popular among American impressionists.

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.