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拍品專文
In the 1880s, France attracted a host of American artists seeking to immerse themselves in the ways of Impressionism. While still in his twenties, Childe Hassam became a part of this migration in 1886, when the artist and his wife settled in Paris. They remained there for the next three years. During this period, Hassam painted Confirmation Day, which was inspired by the street life of Paris that had, during his sojourn there, become the central theme of his art. With passages of broken brushwork, and a sophisticated command of color, atmosphere and light, the present painting represents one of Hassam's early successful forays into 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 in Paris, Hassam began his studies at the Academie Julian. However, his experience at the school was not entirely to his liking, finding more routine and conformity in its method than innovation. In time he would reject it altogether and by 1888, Hassam stopped attending the Academy to develop the tenets of Impressionism on his own.
Already his style began to exhibit a shift away from the more tonal approach evident in the works from his earlier, Boston period. While embracing aspects of Impressionism, Hassam never fully considered himself one of the Impressionists. Donaldson F. Hoopes describes the development of Hassam's distinctive style, "If the search for the equivalent in paint of the light of nature involved borrowing some of the Impressionist's 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)
In an interview later in his career, Hassam would elaborate on the tenets of his style, "Art, to me, is the interpretation of the impression which nature makes upon the eye and brain. The word '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)
The present painting, Confirmation Day, captures Hassam's innovative melding of contemporary styles and his fascination with the everyday scenes unfolding around him. As one art historian notes, "Hassam's greatest amusement was to wander about the streets of Paris in search of motifs for his paintings.... [He] developed in these Paris scenes a working catalogue of themes....More than professional duty, we sense in the process of accumulation the drive of personal curiosity, a faith in the artistic process as a genuine search for truth, and a belief that his role as artist observer was to discover and communicate the often unrecognized aspects of life." (U.W. Hiesinger, Childe Hassam: American Impressionist, New York, 1994, pp. 42-6)
In Confirmation Day, the artist depicts a momentary vignette, the procession along a Parisian street of a nun leading a boy and two girls, the latter arrayed in their white confirmation dresses. Energized through lively brushstrokes, color, light and atmosphere, the work is infused with a restrained sense of movement, indicative of a quieter outlying neighborhood of the city. The day is overcast and the buildings and street are broadly painted in muted tones overlaid with a rich color scheme of pinks, reds, lavenders, blues and greens. Applying his inimitable style to an urban view, Hassam brings together the essential elements which would come to define his greatest achievements in American Impressionism.
Ulrich Hiesinger offers the following conclusion to Hassam's three-year visit, "On leaving Paris, [he] had every reason to feel satisfied with his accomplishments. He could claim to have undergone the rigors of French academic training, had succeeded in exhibiting at the Salon in each of the three years of his stay--no ordinary feat for a young painter--and capped this by receiving a medal at the Exposition Universelle...Hassam had seen his name and reputation steadily increase at home. He received admiring attention in art journals and press reviews. He had even managed to keep selling his work all the while. If he was still not well known, let alone famous, he had certainly moved far beyond the small world of Boston to join the international ranks of professionals worthy of serious attention." (Childe Hassam: American Impressionist, p. 58)
This work will be included in Stuart P. Feld's and Kathleen M. 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 in Paris, Hassam began his studies at the Academie Julian. However, his experience at the school was not entirely to his liking, finding more routine and conformity in its method than innovation. In time he would reject it altogether and by 1888, Hassam stopped attending the Academy to develop the tenets of Impressionism on his own.
Already his style began to exhibit a shift away from the more tonal approach evident in the works from his earlier, Boston period. While embracing aspects of Impressionism, Hassam never fully considered himself one of the Impressionists. Donaldson F. Hoopes describes the development of Hassam's distinctive style, "If the search for the equivalent in paint of the light of nature involved borrowing some of the Impressionist's 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)
In an interview later in his career, Hassam would elaborate on the tenets of his style, "Art, to me, is the interpretation of the impression which nature makes upon the eye and brain. The word '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)
The present painting, Confirmation Day, captures Hassam's innovative melding of contemporary styles and his fascination with the everyday scenes unfolding around him. As one art historian notes, "Hassam's greatest amusement was to wander about the streets of Paris in search of motifs for his paintings.... [He] developed in these Paris scenes a working catalogue of themes....More than professional duty, we sense in the process of accumulation the drive of personal curiosity, a faith in the artistic process as a genuine search for truth, and a belief that his role as artist observer was to discover and communicate the often unrecognized aspects of life." (U.W. Hiesinger, Childe Hassam: American Impressionist, New York, 1994, pp. 42-6)
In Confirmation Day, the artist depicts a momentary vignette, the procession along a Parisian street of a nun leading a boy and two girls, the latter arrayed in their white confirmation dresses. Energized through lively brushstrokes, color, light and atmosphere, the work is infused with a restrained sense of movement, indicative of a quieter outlying neighborhood of the city. The day is overcast and the buildings and street are broadly painted in muted tones overlaid with a rich color scheme of pinks, reds, lavenders, blues and greens. Applying his inimitable style to an urban view, Hassam brings together the essential elements which would come to define his greatest achievements in American Impressionism.
Ulrich Hiesinger offers the following conclusion to Hassam's three-year visit, "On leaving Paris, [he] had every reason to feel satisfied with his accomplishments. He could claim to have undergone the rigors of French academic training, had succeeded in exhibiting at the Salon in each of the three years of his stay--no ordinary feat for a young painter--and capped this by receiving a medal at the Exposition Universelle...Hassam had seen his name and reputation steadily increase at home. He received admiring attention in art journals and press reviews. He had even managed to keep selling his work all the while. If he was still not well known, let alone famous, he had certainly moved far beyond the small world of Boston to join the international ranks of professionals worthy of serious attention." (Childe Hassam: American Impressionist, p. 58)
This work will be included in Stuart P. Feld's and Kathleen M. Burnside's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.