| Childe Hassam was born in Dorcester, Massachusetts, on the outskirts of Boston,
in 1859. By 1876 he was training as an illustrator with a local wood engraver.
He attended the life class at the Boston Art Club, then briefly studied with
William Rimmer and with the German-born painter and printmaker Ignaz Gaugengigl.
In the summer of 1883 Hassam made his first trip to Europe, visiting Britain,
Spain, Italy, France, and the Netherlands, and executing watercolors that
became the basis of a solo exhibition at the Williams and Everett Gallery in
Boston
the following year. He lived in Boston for two years, painting and exhibiting
his first mature oils of street scenes of the city. In November 1886 Hassam
and his wife moved to Paris for three years of intensive study. They lived
in Montmartre, the artistic center of the capital, in a building that included
the studios of painters Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Giovanni Boldini. During
his time in Paris Hassam intermittently studied painting at the Académie
Julian with two conservative painters, Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre,
and exhibited his work annually for the next four years at the government-sponsored
annual Salons. In 1889 he showed four paintings in the American section of
the Universal Exposition and was awarded a bronze medal. . . .
:: Eric Denker, Curator of Prints and Drawings
Corcoran Gallery of Art |
Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from
the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
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