Childe Hassam, "Celia Thaxter's Garden"

    With the last days of summer almost upon us, and after a few weeks of challenging Art, I thought it was time we relaxed with a beautiful landscape.   So, here we have Childe Hassam's (1859 - 1935) oil painting: Celia Thaxter's Garden.   
   Hassam was one of the best of the American Impressionist painters.  He traveled to Europe early in his career to study art and see the developing trends coming out of France. He never met the French Impressionists, but did see their work and was attracted to it. 
   Returning to the United States, Hassam developed his unique style creating beautiful images of  the Eastern coast.  Our painting this week, is taken from the garden of Celia Thaxter (1835 - 1894).She was a poet and writer of short fiction, and his friend.  She lived on the Isle of Shoals, off the coast of New Hampshire, in Maine.  And, obviously, she had a beautiful garden for Hassam created several paintings of it during his visit to see her.
   Dividing the work in half, horizontally, we see the lower portion a mass of vertical and diagonal strokes creating the vision of the plants.  Right through the top center of this lower rectangle are the orange/red and white strokes, indicating the flowers.   
   The top rectangle sets the scene to be along the coast. In the far distance we can see the whites of the sail boats on a perfect summer day.
    Celia Thaxter's Garden is an oil painting on canvas.  It was created in 1890 and is now part of the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.  It measures 17.7 inches by 21.4 inches.  
   Make Art a part of your life, it's a beautiful thing to do.

Comments

  1. Char HarguthAugust 18, 2020 at 7:54 AM

    I do like his work, realistic, but loosely done. In this painting it appears that he has painted the sky in vertical strokes and the water in horizontal brush strokes. The colors are beautiful, and the painting seems almost symmetrically balanced. It's just a relaxing lovely view. It would be a fun spot to sit and paint at!! Another favorite of mine is his Boston Common at Twilight, which I'm quite sure we looked at with you at a Wednesday group.

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