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    Sale 9156

    Important American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture

    New York

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    26 May 1999

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    Lot 14

    Childe Hassam (1859-1935)

    Bridge at Posilippo, Naples

    Price realised

    USD 189,500

    Estimate

    USD 200,000 - USD 300,000

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    Childe Hassam (1859-1935)
    Bridge at Posilippo, Naples
    signed and dated 'Childe Hassam 1897' (lower left)
    oil on canvas
    25 x 30 in. (63.5 x 76.2 cm.)

    Provenance

    Mr. John Fox.
    Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York.
    Private collection, New York.
    Ira Spanierman, New York.
    Private collection, Brownsville, Texas.
    Christie's, New York, December 2, 1988, lot 235a
    Acquired by the present owner from the above.

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    Literature and exhibited

    Exhibited

    New York, Armory of the 69th Regiment, Armory Show, February-May 1913, no. 75 (this exhibition traveled to Chicago, Illinois, Art Institute of Chicago; Boston, Massachusetts, Copley Society of Boston) New York, Durand-Ruel Gallery, 1926, no. 9
    Utica, New York, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, 1913 Armory Show--50th Anniversary Exhibition, February-April 1963, no. 75
    New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., Childe Hassam, 1964, no. 4


    Lot Essay

    In December 1896, Childe Hassam sailed for a yearlong sojourn to Europe, arriving first in Naples, Italy. Not intending to remain in one city, Hassam spent the year revisiting his favorite places abroad. In his works from this period, Hassam continued to explore the pictorial possibilities of high vantage points, painting sweeping panoramic landscapes of a kind he had previously begun in New York. He traveled from Naples to Rome and Florence, painting vistas of Posilippo, Capri, the Bay of Naples, the Spanish Steps and the Ponte Vecchio against the Arno River. "Hassam approached his subjects with an air of aesthetic detachment. . . Whether in city views or landscapes, visual beauty was his primary concern. The more brutal or squalid aspects of city life held no interest for him, and even his concern for working-class subjects was tinged with romantic idealism. However, the idealism and seeming detachment of his paintings often obscure the fact that his work stems from the most direct personal experiences-whether they were of neighborhoods he walked in, sights discovered in some foreign town, or views obtained from his studio window." (Ulrich W. Hiesinger, Childe Hassam: American Impressionist, New York, 1994, p. 10)

    In Bridge at Posilippo, Naples, one of several paintings executed from different viewpoints outside the city, Hassam employs a succession of quick brushstrokes creating an abstract surface patterning of the city's architectural elements. During this time, Hassam 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." (Ulrich W. Hiesinger, Childe Hassam: American Impressionist, New York, 1994, p. 109)

    The paintings completed during Hassam's year abroad reveal " . . . the artists openness to stimuli from all directions and his willingness to explore alternative treatments of the picture surface." (Ulrich W. Hiesinger, Childe Hassam: American Impressionist, New York, 1994, p. 115) In fact, Bridge at Posilippo, Naples was considered so important, it was submitted for inclusion in the momentous Armory Show in 1913, fifteen years after it was painted.

    This painting will be included in Stuart P. Feld's and Kathleen M. Burnside's forthcoming catalogue raisonn of the artist's work.

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