Childe Hassam

Available Works

Biography

Childe Hassam (American, 1859-1935) was a pioneering American Impressionist, known for his depictions of New York, Boston, and Paris. Hassam was born into a wealthy New England family. At the beginning of his career, Hassam moved to Europe in the 1880s to study painting at the Academie Julien. During his time there, he met the French Impressionists, and became deeply inspired by Claude Monet’s impressionistic, vibrant renderings of the French countryside and female portraiture. He would move back to New York at the turn of the century and stay there for the majority of his career. 

Unlike most European impressionists, Hassam was drawn to depictions of cities, specifically New York and Boston. These landscapes are defined by colorful light and shadow in defined bravado. Hassam did not solely paint cities, but also countryside portraits of people as well as the houses and countryside of New England. His piece, The English Girl, depicts an unknown woman, perhaps a study of his wife Maude Hassam. The subject is composed of bright pinks, blues, and yellows to form dark shadow along the spine of the subject and the rose she grasps. Brushstrokes in a variety of brush widths and lengths to form an undertimed yet lively background.The work employs impressionistic landscape innovations in color and light to an intimate portrait.

Hassam gained great success with landscapes and provincial portraits until his death in 1935. His works continue to be collected by major museums across the globe, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, among many others.