Childe Hassam
American, 1859 - 1935Newport Waterfront, 1901
On view
Oil on canvas
Dimensions26 1/4 × 24 1/8 in.
Gift of The Whiting Foundation through Mr. and Mrs. Donald E. Johnson, 1972.31
This painting depicts a view of the harbor in Newport, Rhode Island. New England coastal towns held a particular allure for Childe Hassam, and he painted them several times. The work is from a group of harbor scenes he executed of Gloucester, Provincetown, and Newport that commenced in the early 1890s. In this painting, he pictures the quaint historic town from Goat Island looking landward to the harbor. The blue sky is punctuated by the strong verticality of the boat masts and white steeple of Trinity Church.
Created shortly after Hassam’s travels to Europe to study Impressionism, this painting reflects the influence of this style in its broken brushstrokes and bright colors. His subject is not as “dissolved” as a French Impressionist’s work, instead he maintained a sense of solidity and clarity of form that is distinctly American. Hassam became one of the foremost American Impressionists, renowned for his New England land- and seascapes, as well as urban scenes of Boston and New York.
