Childe Hassam’s Portrait of Adelaide Christina Meyer, 1913
2009; American Medical Association; Volume: 11; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1001/archfaci.2009.38
ISSN1538-3660
Autores Tópico(s)German Colonialism and Identity Studies
ResumoArchives of Facial Plastic SurgeryVol. 11, No. 4 Free AccessChilde Hassam’s Portrait of Adelaide Christina Meyer, 1913Emily B. CollinsEmily B. CollinsCorrespondence: Ms Collins, 304 W 75th St, New York, NY 10023 (E-mail Address: emilybcollins@gmail.com)Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:1 Jul 2009AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Childe Hassam was born Frederick Childe Hassam in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on October 17, 1859. Hassam explained the roots of his name many times and was proud that he could trace his American ancestry to a time prior to the American Revolution. New England was Hassam's most painted subject, and he wanted to ensure that his family was associated with the prerevolutionary history of New England. The surname Hassam is a corruption of the English surname Horsham, as reported by the family genealogist in 1870. His middle name, Childe, means shield or knight and is from the Saxon. It was also the name of an uncle.ref-qbe90002-1(p3)Childe Hassam (1859-1935). Portrait of Adelaide Christina Meyer, 1913. Oil on canvas. 21¾ × 17¼ in. Richmond Museum of Art, Richmond, Indiana. Gift of the John Levy Galleries, New York, New York, 1934.Impressionism is a style that is most associated with the artists of France. Beginning in the late 1860s and continuing in the following decades, Impressionism gained popularity and respect throughout Europe. At the same time, many American artists who had been trained in the United States were traveling to Europe to complete their own version of finishing school. Hassam was one such artist. While in Paris in the 1880s, Hassam became exposed to the Impressionist style and began to experiment with the new technique. Although Claude Monet is the Impressionist with whom Hassam is most commonly associated (he was annoyed at being referred to as the French master's American disciple), he preferred the work of English painters like J. M. W. Turner and the English Impressionist Alfred Sisley.ref-qbe90002-1(p7) Despite his partiality toward the English, Hassam also exhibited his work in France at both the Salon (the official exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris) and the Exposition Universelle of 1889.ref-qbe90002-2(p96)In the same year Hassam returned to the United States and settled in New York City. On his return to the United States he soon became involved in the formation of the New York Watercolor Club. Throughout his career Hassam would be involved in many painters' societies and clubs and artists' colonies. Perhaps the most important of these was The Ten, a group of artists who were originally members of the National Academy of Design or the Society of American Artists, or both, and were, at least loosely, considered to be American Impressionists. As a group, they considered the exhibitions held by the Academy of Design and the Society of American Artists to be too large and to contain too many different styles. Guided by Hassam and his 2 colleagues John H. Twatchman and J. Alden Weir, the future members of the group resigned their memberships to the larger societies.ref-qbe90002-1(p17) They incorporated their new group and were known as The Ten or The Ten American Painters. Some saw this name as arrogant, but it was not a name chosen by the artists. They had planned on being a group of 12, but Winslow Homer and Abbott Thayer had declined the invitation.ref-qbe90002-2(p171) They were referred to as The Ten only because the catalog cover for their first exhibition featured the Roman numeral X, and the script above it read, “The First Exhibition/Ten American Painters.”ref-qbe90002-2(p175)In addition to these groups and societies, Hassam was active at many artists' colonies, which were thriving along the coastline of New England during the summer months of the late 1800s through the first quarter of the 20th century. The most important of these colonies where Hassam was in residence was Appledore Island, Maine. The Laighton family operated a hotel there that accommodated 400 guests. The poet Celia Laighton Thaxter had been the facilitator who brought together many artists, writers, and musicians. It was she who advised Hassam to drop his first name and refer to himself as Childe Hassam. Her garden, her home, and the island were subjects of many of Hassam's paintings.ref-qbe90002-1(pp119-122)Hassam is most well known for his landscapes, mostly of the New England countryside, along with New York and Boston cityscapes. These subjects made him a very popular and prosperous artist. He had written in 1917 that he had become financially comfortable enough to aid other artists, and he purchased a home in East Hampton, Long Island, New York. In East Hampton he would have a community invested in the arts, at least those that fell into the conservative tastes of the villagers. Because of Hassam's success in selling his landscape paintings he, unlike most other artists, did not need to depend on commissions for portraits.ref-qbe90002-1(p315) Perhaps for this reason, there are few Hassam portraits available for study today. One exception is the Portrait of Adelaide Christina Meyer, 1913 in the Richmond Art Museum, Richmond, Indiana. In an exhibition catalog titled Childe Hassam in Indiana, the portrait is listed as having been lent by the Whitewater Valley Museum of Art (Richmond Art Association), the predecessor to the Richmond Art Museum. The painting is titled Head, 1913. In the description of the painting, the writer speculated that the sitter was Maude Hassam, the artist's wife.ref-qbe90002-3(p41) However, thanks to the efforts of Gladys H. Bartlett and the Richmond Art Museum (written communication, April 2, 2009), we now know that the sitter is Adelaide Christina Meyer, Ms Bartlett's mother.Ms Bartlett discovered the painting on the museum's Web site in 2003 and contacted the museum to let them know that this was not merely an unknown sitter, but her mother. Ms Bartlett's great aunt, Anna E. Little, was a patron of Hassam who had commissioned the portrait of Adelaide as well as one of herself, a study of which was given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1998 by Ms Bartlett. Once Hassam had finished the painting of Adelaide, however, the family felt that it was not a very good likeness, and it was auctioned at Anderson Galleries in New York City, on November 15, 1929. In the auction catalog, the painting was listed as number 62 and titled Portrait of a Lady, a title that was often given to protect the identity of the sitter from public gossip. The next known location of the painting is the John Levy Galleries, also in New York City, who presented the painting to the Richmond Art Museum (then still the Art Association of Richmond) in 1934. Following Ms Bartlett's request, the museum renamed the painting, identifying the sitter as her mother, using her maiden name because she was unmarried at the time the portrait was painted.The more that is known about the sitter, the more engaged the viewer can become. Because of Ms Bartlett's discovery, viewers can now know much more about the mystery woman in the painting. Adelaide was an artist herself and a member of the New York City Oratorio Society at Carnegie Hall. She was active in the movement to give women the right to vote. Prior to this revelation, the viewer saw only a young woman, painted in the Impressionist style, with loose brushstrokes and a multitude of colors representing the way that the light played on her brunette hair and sheer white wrap. Her cheeks and lips are flushed with pink, and the white of the wrap around her shoulders accentuates the glowing paleness of her skin. Hassam has emphasized her lightness by contrasting it with a darker background. All of these details make viewing the painting more enjoyable. However, now when we look at the portrait and observe a head held high, a direct gaze, and a look of serene calmness, it becomes infinitely more interesting to consider Hassam's painterly genius along with knowledge of the life Adelaide Christina Meyer lived.REFERENCESWeinberg HB. Childe Hassam, American Impressionist.. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press; 2004. Metropolitan Museum of Art Series Google ScholarGerdts WH. American Impressionism.. New York, NY: Abbeville Press; 2001 Google ScholarJoyaux A. Childe Hassam in Indiana.Ball State University Art Gallery, November 3 to December 8, 1985; Muncie, Indiana.. Exhibition catalog Google ScholarFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 11Issue 4Jul 2009 InformationCopyright 2009 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved. Applicable FARS/DFARS Restrictions Apply to Government Use.To cite this article:Emily B. Collins.Childe Hassam’s Portrait of Adelaide Christina Meyer, 1913.Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery.Jul 2009.280-280.http://doi.org/10.1001/archfaci.2009.38Published in Volume: 11 Issue 4: July 1, 2009PDF download
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