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Lot Essay
In April, Quai Voltaire, Childe Hassam depicts Paris bursting into spring. Employing a bright, Impressionist palette, he shows the Seine glimmering in the sun, lined by delicate golden trees contrasted with the bold colors of the booksellers on the banks. A small figure, perhaps an artist sketching, sits in the shade, as fellow Parisians stroll by, enjoying the fine weather. In the distance, a majestic dome rises on the opposite bank, but the architecture of it and the bridge are overpowered by the images of nature and people in the foreground. Most likely painted from his room at the Hotel du Quai Voltaire, the composition is cropped, almost like a snapshot taken through his hotel window.
Hassam visited Paris once before in 1886-1889, where he was first exposed to Impressionism. Captivated by the innovative style, he quickly adopted it as his own. After returning to America, he spent nearly a decade developing his technique, creating some of his most famous views of Boston and New York. By the time that Hassam returned to Paris in 1897, as part of a year he spent traveling in Europe, he was a well-established artist. Inspired by his environment and enriched by his experience as a mature painter, Hassam's works from Paris feature "the elevated position that Hassam had introduced in his New York pictures, a vantage related, appropriately, to the urban views of Paris and other cities by many of the French Impressionists." (W. Gerdts, "Three Themes", in Childe Hassam: Impressionist, New York, 1999, p. 159) At the same time, he applied an increasingly lighter palette; "The artist once referred to these light toned canvases as simply the result of personal preference, but other comments he made suggest that he was challenged by the particularly difficult problem of achieving successful harmonies in light tones." (U. W. Hiesinger, Childe Hassam: American Impressionist, New York, 1994, p. 109)
This painting will be included in Stuart Feld's and Kathleen Burnside's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.
Hassam visited Paris once before in 1886-1889, where he was first exposed to Impressionism. Captivated by the innovative style, he quickly adopted it as his own. After returning to America, he spent nearly a decade developing his technique, creating some of his most famous views of Boston and New York. By the time that Hassam returned to Paris in 1897, as part of a year he spent traveling in Europe, he was a well-established artist. Inspired by his environment and enriched by his experience as a mature painter, Hassam's works from Paris feature "the elevated position that Hassam had introduced in his New York pictures, a vantage related, appropriately, to the urban views of Paris and other cities by many of the French Impressionists." (W. Gerdts, "Three Themes", in Childe Hassam: Impressionist, New York, 1999, p. 159) At the same time, he applied an increasingly lighter palette; "The artist once referred to these light toned canvases as simply the result of personal preference, but other comments he made suggest that he was challenged by the particularly difficult problem of achieving successful harmonies in light tones." (U. W. Hiesinger, Childe Hassam: American Impressionist, New York, 1994, p. 109)
This painting will be included in Stuart Feld's and Kathleen Burnside's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.