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Lot Essay
Paris in the 1880's attracted a host of American artists seeking to immerse themselves in the ways of Impressionism. Childe Hassam was part of this migration; in 1886 the artist and his wife settled in Paris where they would remain for the next three years. During this period Hassam executed Rue Madeleine, Place de l'Opera, drawing strong inspiration from the Paris environs. With broken yet controlled brush strokes, sophisticated command of color, atmosphere and light, Rue Madeleine, Place de l'Opera represents one of Hassam's earliest and important forays into American Impressionism.
Hassam moved to Paris with the intent of "refining his talent in the larger crucible of contemporary art." (D.F. Hoopes, Childe Hassam, New York, 1982, p.13) While Hassam was living in Boston, he subscribed to the principles of tonalism. Concentrating on painting the effects of atmosphere, the artist created images of Boston streets in twilight, on a rainy day or illuminated by artificial light. While in Paris, Hassam studied at the Academie Julian, though his experience at the school was neither favorable nor beneficial to his art. Hassam wrote: "The Julian Academy is the personification of routine...It is nonsense. It crushes all originality out of the growing men." (quoted in U.W. Hiesinger, Childe Hassam, New York, 1994, p. 32)
Working independently of the Academie, Hassam learned his most important artistic lessons on his own. During this time his style shifted away from the more static approach evident in his works from his earlier Bostonian period. By 1888, Hassam stopped attending the Academie and was working entirely on his own, absorbing various tenets of Impressionism. Hassam, however, consistently rejected the classification of Impressionist. Donaldson F. Hoopes writes: "If the search for the equivalent in paint of the light of nature involved borrowing some of the Impressionists' innovations, then he borrowed, but at no time in his career did Hassam subordinate the emotional content of the represented image to a supremacy of color or technique. Indeed, most of his paintings from the Paris years also tell of his search for a synthesis of his commitment to realism and the demands of a viable plastic expression." (Childe Hassam, p. 13) Hassam in a later interview with A.E. Ives explained his own tenets of style: "Art, to me, is the interpretation of the impression which nature makes upon the eye and brain. The work 'impression' as applied to art has been used, and in the general acceptance of the term has become perverted. It really means the only truth because it means going straight to nature for inspiration, and not allowing tradition to dictate to your brush, or to put brown, green or some other colored spectacles between you and nature as it really exists. The true impressionism is realism." (A.E. Ives, "Talks with Artists: Childe Hassam on Painting Street Scenes," Art Amateur, 27, October 1892, p. 117)
Utilizing the city environs of Paris, Rue Madeleine, Place de l'Opera reflects Hassam's innovative borrowing of Impressionist techniques combined with his unique sense of realism. This melding of styles would come to define the power and creativity of his art. Hassam, "was caught by the everyday scenes that unfolded around him at each corner or at newspaper kiosks and bookstalls on the quais." (Childe Hassam, p. 44) In Rue Madeleine, Place de l'Opera, he combines his keen observations of the lively scene with a delicate yet energetic brushwork. Employing a bold composition, Hassam shows the avenue receding sharply from the viewer, creating a realistic sense of perspective. Yet the trees that define his perspectival lines are depicted in soft tones and expressive brushwork. The broad, defining spaces of the sky and street, treated in muted tones, are punctuated by the bright yellows, blues, and even reddish browns of the handsome cab rolling down the avenue, the woman with the parasol crossing the street, and the figures gathered around the kiosk on the corner. The scene which Hassam portrays in Rue Madeleine, Place de l'Opera moves beyond a vision of everyday life and transforms into a crystalline image that is energized through brush stroke, color, light and atmosphere. Hassam employs a steady yet broken brush stroke that infuses the work with a sense of movement indicative of a bustling boulevard.
Combining his past interest in urban scenes with a new and unique painting technique, Rue Madeleine, Place de l'Opera represents an important stylistic development in Hassam's career. The present work illustrates the important elements that would later define his greatest achievements in American Impressionism.
This painting will be included in Stuart Feld's and Kathleen Burnside's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.
Hassam moved to Paris with the intent of "refining his talent in the larger crucible of contemporary art." (D.F. Hoopes, Childe Hassam, New York, 1982, p.13) While Hassam was living in Boston, he subscribed to the principles of tonalism. Concentrating on painting the effects of atmosphere, the artist created images of Boston streets in twilight, on a rainy day or illuminated by artificial light. While in Paris, Hassam studied at the Academie Julian, though his experience at the school was neither favorable nor beneficial to his art. Hassam wrote: "The Julian Academy is the personification of routine...It is nonsense. It crushes all originality out of the growing men." (quoted in U.W. Hiesinger, Childe Hassam, New York, 1994, p. 32)
Working independently of the Academie, Hassam learned his most important artistic lessons on his own. During this time his style shifted away from the more static approach evident in his works from his earlier Bostonian period. By 1888, Hassam stopped attending the Academie and was working entirely on his own, absorbing various tenets of Impressionism. Hassam, however, consistently rejected the classification of Impressionist. Donaldson F. Hoopes writes: "If the search for the equivalent in paint of the light of nature involved borrowing some of the Impressionists' innovations, then he borrowed, but at no time in his career did Hassam subordinate the emotional content of the represented image to a supremacy of color or technique. Indeed, most of his paintings from the Paris years also tell of his search for a synthesis of his commitment to realism and the demands of a viable plastic expression." (Childe Hassam, p. 13) Hassam in a later interview with A.E. Ives explained his own tenets of style: "Art, to me, is the interpretation of the impression which nature makes upon the eye and brain. The work 'impression' as applied to art has been used, and in the general acceptance of the term has become perverted. It really means the only truth because it means going straight to nature for inspiration, and not allowing tradition to dictate to your brush, or to put brown, green or some other colored spectacles between you and nature as it really exists. The true impressionism is realism." (A.E. Ives, "Talks with Artists: Childe Hassam on Painting Street Scenes," Art Amateur, 27, October 1892, p. 117)
Utilizing the city environs of Paris, Rue Madeleine, Place de l'Opera reflects Hassam's innovative borrowing of Impressionist techniques combined with his unique sense of realism. This melding of styles would come to define the power and creativity of his art. Hassam, "was caught by the everyday scenes that unfolded around him at each corner or at newspaper kiosks and bookstalls on the quais." (Childe Hassam, p. 44) In Rue Madeleine, Place de l'Opera, he combines his keen observations of the lively scene with a delicate yet energetic brushwork. Employing a bold composition, Hassam shows the avenue receding sharply from the viewer, creating a realistic sense of perspective. Yet the trees that define his perspectival lines are depicted in soft tones and expressive brushwork. The broad, defining spaces of the sky and street, treated in muted tones, are punctuated by the bright yellows, blues, and even reddish browns of the handsome cab rolling down the avenue, the woman with the parasol crossing the street, and the figures gathered around the kiosk on the corner. The scene which Hassam portrays in Rue Madeleine, Place de l'Opera moves beyond a vision of everyday life and transforms into a crystalline image that is energized through brush stroke, color, light and atmosphere. Hassam employs a steady yet broken brush stroke that infuses the work with a sense of movement indicative of a bustling boulevard.
Combining his past interest in urban scenes with a new and unique painting technique, Rue Madeleine, Place de l'Opera represents an important stylistic development in Hassam's career. The present work illustrates the important elements that would later define his greatest achievements in American Impressionism.
This painting will be included in Stuart Feld's and Kathleen Burnside's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.