He was born Frederick Childe Hassam but eventually dropped his first name in favor of Childe. His ancestors were English and came to America in the 1600s, well before America’s War of Independence and Constitution. Born in Dorchester, MA in 1859, by the age of 16 he was already apprenticed to a local wood-engraver; he later became a freelance illustrator and in the evenings took life drawing classes at the Boston Art Club. (Click images to enlarge)
Childe Hassam
By 1883, at the age of 24, he and artist friend, Edmund Garrett set off for Europe to paint for a year. Hassam returned with a large body of watercolors which he exhibited in a Boston Gallery. Shortly after arriving back in America he married Kathleen Doane and they lived in Boston two years before heading back to Europe where Childe was able to study with several prominent teachers at the Academie Julian in Paris. After three years they returned to America and for the next 20 years New York was called home, however their summers were spent in various parts of New England where Childe engrossed himself in painting two of his favorite subjects…cityscapes and the surrounding countryside.
“Wayside Inn Oaks in Spring” – 10″ x 8″ – Etching (1926)
“The Garden in its Glory” – 20″ x 14″ – Watercolor (1892)
Hassam is probably best known for his distinctive “Flag Series”…a series of 30 paintings which he created in 1917. The inspiration for the paintings was the “Preparedness Parade” (for the US involvement in World War 1. The parade, which sometimes lasted up to 12 hours, was held on Fifth Avenue in New York in which thousands of people participated.
“Allies Day, May 1917″ – 36″ x 30” – Oil (1917)
Hassam was very patriotic and strongly anti-Germany during this time. He and his wife joined other artists, even from the beginning of the war in 1914, in bringing relief to those in need. He also contributed many of the flag paintings to the war relief effort in exchange for Liberty Bonds but was hoping the entire series would be purchased as a war memorial set for the price of $100.000; that did not happen. Eventually, most of the paintings were sold to individual collectors.
Hassam was not the only one that painted flag-themed works, Claude Monet did as well.
“Avenue in the Rain” 42″ x 22″ – Oil (1917)
A simple search on Google tells of the distinctiveness of Hassam’s flag series and their importance to American Art. “Hassam’s flag series of paintings have a distinctly American character, showing the flags displayed on New York’s most fashionable street with his own compositional style and artistic vision. In most paintings in the series, the flags dominate the foreground, while in others the flags are simply part of the festive panorama. In some, the American flags wave alone and in others, flags of the Allies flutter as well. In his most impressionistic painting of the series, “The Avenue in the Rain”, which has been in the White House permanent collection since the Kennedy administration, the flags and their reflections are blurred so extremely as to appear to be viewed through a rain-smeared window. On entering the White House in 2008, Barack Obama chose to display the painting in the Oval Office. Hassam’s flag paintings cover all seasons and various weather and light conditions. Hassam makes a patriotic statement without overt references to parades, soldiers, or war, apart from one picture showing a flag exclaiming “Buy Liberty Bonds”.
“The Victorian Chair” – 30″ x 25″ – Oil (1906)
“The South Ledges, Appledore” – 34″ x 36″ – Oil (1913)
Art has the power to transcend boundaries and unite people.
“Spring Morning in the Heart of the City” – 18″ x 20″ – Oil (1899)
“Up the River, Late Afternoon, October” – 18″ x 22″ – Pastel (1906)
During the last 15 years of his life, Childe Hassam’s popularity boomed, resulting in continually escalating prices. It was during this time that he and his wife purchased their final home in East Hampton, New York. Many of his paintings during those remaining years were subjects from that area. It was a time in which he also received significant recognition, among them, the Gold Medal of Honor for Lifetime achievement from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Art is a timeless legacy that outlives its creator.
Art was changing and Hassam was quite discouraged, and actually denounced, its modern trends. He was repulsed by Cubism, Surrealism and the like. Hassam’s work eventually became unfashionable, and it was not until the 1960s that Hassam began to be seen as one of America’s abandoned geniuses. It is only because the work of the French Impressionists was skyrocketing in value during that time that collectors began to look once again at American Impressionism; the increased interest caused Hassam’s paintings to rise in value as well.
He was a unique American talent that contributed much to America’s artistic heritage. He left us in 1935 at the age of seventy-five.
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