Childe Hassam and the Isles of Shoals

[Bull City]

Margie and I just got back from seeing this exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Art. The paintings are stunning. Hassam, an American impressionist, was a genius. Although I purchased the catalogue, it does not do justice to his paintings. You must must see them. Hassam painted in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Isles of Shoals are off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire.

The Exhibit will be in North Carolina until mid-June, and then it moves to the Peabody in Salem, Mass. from July 16 to November 6.

The exhibit is well done - not too big, not too small - and there are current photos of some of the locations. If you haven’t seen it, please please go soon. I've seen Monet, DaVinci, Rembrandt, blah, blah, but Hassam's palette, texture and technique are extraordinary. They sparkle.

A favorite:

Hassam_Broad_Cove.jpg

[Orestes Munn]

If I had an extra few hundred grand lying around, I would buy a Hassam. I have always loved his work.

[BeauV]

I'd buy a Winslow Homer...

[Tucky]

And go see the Hassam paintings especially at the Peabody, one of the great small museums in this country. Thanks for the heads up.

[Orestes Munn]

I'd buy a Winslow Homer...

Or a Hopper

[Rob McAlpine]

Field trip to Smuttynose?

[Bull City]

Here are two from the exhibit. One is a sunrise, the other a moonrise. They were done at the same place, a few years apart and a lower tide for the moonrise. The curators think that this is the first time they have been on exhibit together.

One of the things that interested me, as a painter, was that his brush strokes in the corresponding areas of the two paintings were very similar.

hassam sun.jpg

hassam moon.jpg

[Jamie]

I'd buy a Winslow Homer...

Or a Hopper

I've always had a print of that Hopper somewhere in my house. A happy day of carefree sailing just went ominous. Wait, that's not the bell we're looking for?? The real thing would be in the millions, wound't it?

[Orestes Munn]

I would think so. I remember spending hours at a Hopper exhibit at the Smithsonian with my daughter when she was about 14. We were both spellbound and the magic of seeing such amazing work through her eyes was maybe one of the greatest joys I've ever experienced.

[Tucky]

Both Hopper and Homer could shape boats perfectly and place them in the water perfectly, even Hopper's wonderful "shaken rug" waves. The symmetry of that cat boat is right on. There is a Homer watercolor of a Bahamian sloop where the hull itself is the white paper and there is one perfectly placed wash that puts the hollow in the bow and creates the full shape of the hull with the suggestion. A good watercolor like that is like live music- you get just one shot to get it right, or even at all.

[BeauV]

Both Hopper and Homer could shape boats perfectly and place them in the water perfectly, even Hopper's wonderful "shaken rug" waves. The symmetry of that cat boat is right on. There is a Homer watercolor of a Bahamian sloop where the hull itself is the white paper and there is one perfectly placed wash that puts the hollow in the bow and creates the full shape of the hull with the suggestion. A good watercolor like that is like live music- you get just one shot to get it right, or even at all.

I couldn't agree more! Here's Homer's "LIZZIE"

[Tucky]

That is the one- when you see it in person that wash under the bow is incredible- he had one chance at it, to make the puddle and lift the brush in a way that would create the hollow. Just spectacular. All the other shadows from the sails and the dinghy are wonderful as well.

Chinese and Japanese artists spent lifetimes just working in black watercolor ink, and the mastery they show when working quickly is a joy.

[IrieMon]

Spent many a weekend of my youth hopping around the Isles of Shoals. Amazing how that first Hassam painting above nails it perfectly.

[Tim Ford]

I always thought that particualr Hopper was a bit mechanical and formulaic...then one June I did a delivery from Essex over to Block Island and goddarn if it didn't look a helluva lot like that....until the fog rolled in.