Day 297 - Childe Hassam



May 9, 2022

Gallery 769 displays works painted between 1880 and 1920 by American Impressionists (especially William Merritt Chase and Childe Hassam) and Realists (notably, George Bellows and Rockwell Kent). Two Hassam works are the subject of today's entry. I love them both, for different reasons.

Who wouldn't love "Celia Thaxter's Garden, Isle of Shoals, Maine"?  A luxuriant field of wildflowers occupies the foreground of this small painting (perhaps 24" long X 18" high), which Hassam painted in 1890. Bright red poppies capture the eye and contrast with the beige of the rocky coast and the blue of sea and sky in the background. The picture is at once serene and vibrant; Hassam's training as an Impressionist is evident.

The artist painted "The Church at Gloucester" some 30 years later, in 1918; its style is more realistic. In the work (which measures about 28" high and 24" wide), a pathway lined by tall trees that cast soft shadows leads the viewer 's eyes up to the central door of the church. The building's white (clapboard?) facade and steeple remind me of so many other New England churches (the Congregational churches in Hadley and Sunderland; the home of the Jewish Community of Amherst, which was formerly the Second Congregational Church)  - although this one would appear to house a considerably more affluent congregation. I realize how much I love - and miss - this part of the country. 

The label notes that Hassam "promoted the conviction that the region [New England] embodied immutable American values." But what were these values in 1918, I wonder? The church depicted is Universalist, so freedom from doctrinaire religious beliefs, I suppose.  But also genteel paternalism and antisemitism, a conviction of the superiority of old American stock?

The signage seems to suggest an evolution of Hassam's style over time. But his painting of flags lining Fifth Avenue, also executed in 1918, looks to me like a textbook example of Impressionism. Perhaps what's more true is that Hassam worked in many styles at the same time.





 

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