By Jan & Warren Adelson
Adelson Galleries, Inc.

ARTIST: CHILDE HASSAM (1859-1935)

Childe Hassam was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts and died in East Hampton, New York in 1935. He was a prolific Impressionist artist whose city views and poetic landscapes became the touchstone of American Impressionism.

After establishing himself in Boston as a painter of urban life, Hassam sailed for Europe late in 1886 with his bride, the former Maude Doane. The Hassams took up residence in Paris, and during the next several years, Hassam's exposure to the work of the French Impressionists was evident in his brightened palette and broken brushwork. He concentrated on the urban life of Paris, carefully rendering the streets, architecture, and local denizens, all seen with the optimism and euphemism that was the prevailing artistic perspective. His canvases were exhibited and honored at the Paris Salon during these years and the extant works from this French period (1887-1889) were among his most inspired. Among the most admired pictures of this time are a group of paintings depicting women in the elegant back garden of a friend's country home in Villiers-le- Bel, a village north of Paris.

Gondoliers, Venice, c. 1891
Watercolor on paper
12 1/2 x 8 inches

Childe Hassam's favorite summer retreat was Appledore Island, returning faithfully every summer for several decades. Appledore is at the center of a group of tiny, rocky islands known as the Isles of Shoals, which lie in the Atlantic about ten miles outside the harbor of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This was a popular summer resort capable of accommodating hundreds of guests, and despite its proximity to the mainland, the surrounding ocean and a view toward thousands of miles of the open sea gave Appledore the illusion of being totally isolated. Hassam was one of the regulars in Celia Thaxter's summer circle. The two met around 1880, probably in Boston, where Thaxter studied art. At one point, around 1883-1885, Hassam served as a substitute teacher for one of her classes, and not long after that began providing illustrations for some of her publications. Hassam may have begun visiting the Isles of Shoals as early as 1884, and he is known to have painted a watercolor of the lighthouse on White Island in 1886 (Mead Art Museum, Amherst College). But virtually all of his images of the island fall into two distinct groups: those executed between 1890 and 1894 (the year of Thaxter's death) and those from 1899 to 1916, when he made numerous visits to the island. Some of the watercolors and oils from the first group depict the interior of Thaxter's cottage, but the majority are outdoor scenes set in and around her flower garden.

In 1897, Hassam became one of the founding members of The Ten, a group that included Frank Benson, Joseph DeCamp, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Willard Metcalf, Robert Reid, Edward Simmons, Edmund Tarbell, John Twachtman, and J. Alden Weir. The original group of the ten artists had seceded from the Society of American artists at the end of 1897. The Ten was strictly an exhibiting society, eschewing any ideas of permanent premises, increasing membership, invitational participation, a permanent collection, or educational facilities. The Ten's only activity beside its annual exhibition was a yearly planning meeting at the Players Club. Hassam was considered the most radical of The Ten. His interiors with women were a theme common to most of this group.

Childe Hassam began painting his flag series in 1916, after being inspired by the Preparedness Parade held on Fifth Avenue. The composition of the city street decorated by flags had been explored by French painters, notably Claude Monet, but Hassam's thematic response to the Great War was his own. He worked on the series for three years during the war. All of the flag paintings depict Fifth Avenue, Fifty-Seventh Street, or nearby streets; at the time the artist's studio was on West Fifty-Seventh Street. All were painted in daylight, under varying weather conditions. Hassam considered the image of the flag to be symbolic of the victories of the Allies. The series consisted of twenty-two paintings, representing the number of Allies. At least that number was used when attempts were made to raise a public subscription to purchase the series for the State as a war memorial. In an effort to do this, there was a well-publicized exhibition at Milch Galleries in 1919, which was an effort to keep the series together. The canvases were shown in several other important exhibitions subsequently, the last of which being at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington in 1922. It was Hassam's hope to keep the series together to commemorate the American effort in the War. It was not to be; the paintings went their various ways.

Hassam first visited East Hampton in 1898 at the insistence of his old friend and fellow artist Ruger Donoho. It was the year of the Spanish-American War and there was some uncertainty as to whether Hassam's usual summer place, the Appledore Hotel on the Isles of Shoals, off the coast of New Hampshire would be open because of its exposed position in the water. He visited Donoho's house on Egypt Lane, and Hassam and his wife stayed at one of the boarding houses in the village. He went to East Hampton regularly after this first visit, and he later bought "Willow Bend," their house on Egypt Lane. Hassam quickly became one of the most illustrious characters of this developing art colony where he continued to paint and etch until his death in 1935. From the time of his first visit, he regularly painted the remarkable terrain of East Hampton, Southampton, Amagansett, Montauk, and Water Mill. His urban works at this time were dominated by the tribute to the War Allies, his famous "Flag Series," which depicted the streets of New York bedecked in American and Allied flags, painted from a bird's eye vantage several floors above the street level. This brilliant series of paintings is characterized by a high-key palette and palpable atmospheric effects which stylistically resemble our rural canvas in execution and sensibility.