Childe Hassam
American, 1859 - 1935Portrait of Joseph Pennell, 1917
Not on view
Lithograph on paper
Dimensions18 1/8 × 12 1/16 in. (46 × 30.6 cm)
Image: 15 1/4 × 11 1/4 in. (38.7 × 28.6 cm)
Gift of Mrs. Childe Hassam, 1940.17
Recognized as one of America's premier Impressionist painters, (Frederick) Childe Hassam (1859-1935) had both training in commercial art, working as an illustrator for newspapers and magazines, and academic studies in fine art at the Lowell Institute in Boston and at the Académie Julian in Paris. It was in Paris that Hassam embraced the color and lighting techniques of Impressionism, although he maintained a greater sense of form and contour in his work. Upon his return to the United States, Hassam settled in New York and made frequent trips throughout the East Coast, painting charming regional scenes of village and coastal settings. Hassam devoted the last decade of his life largely to printmaking.
The subject of Hassam's portrait is Joseph Pennell (1857-1926), an artist, book illustrator, and journalist who spent most of his working life in Europe portraying architectural subjects in etchings, pen-and-ink drawings and lithographs. His illustrations of cathedrals, palaces and street scenes often appeared in Century, McClure and Harper's magazines. An influential lecturer and critic, Pennell wrote and illustrated over one hundred books by the end of his career.
