Childe Hassam: patterns of appreciation

Magazine Antiques, July, 2004 by H. Barbara Weinberg

Beginning in 1918 Hassam organized several exhibitions to promote the sale of his flag series in its entirety. (10) When that scheme collapsed, he virtually abandoned New York subjects in favor of rural and allegorical themes in addition to prints.

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Hassam's tireless self-promotion usually paid off. He received numerous medals, awards, and honors, served on countless art juries, and was elected to every distinguished art society. In 1899 the Cincinnati Art Museum purchased Pont Royal, Paris (Pl. VII), and in 1900 the Carnegie Institute purchased Fifth Avenue in Winter (Pl. V). Both acquisitions marked a new commitment on the part of American public institutions to the national version of impressionism. By 1912 Hassam was represented in many American museums, and by 1920 he had attracted the attention of the leading collectors of American painting: Thomas B. Clarke, William T. Evans, Charles Lang Freer, John Gellatly, George A. Hearn, and Alexander C. Humphreys. His visits to Portland, Oregon, in 1904 and 1908 and the support of the Portland lawyer and poet Charles Erskine Scott Wood (1852-1944) created a coterie of collectors on the West Coast.

Even if Hassam had to prod his dealers--as surviving correspondence suggests--they typically made expeditious sales at favorable prices. "In 1920 he said the revenue from his brush that year was $100,000," according to a 1935 report. (11) During the 1920s, when many people perceived Hassam to be past his prime, his dealers were apparently still pressing him to provide inventory. He complained to the critic Royal Cortissoz (1869-1948) in 1926:

I'm away for six months and they get after me as soon as I get back to
town and annoy the life out of me for small drawings, water colors,
small and less expensive paintings.... they all seem to want to make
money. (12)

At Hassam's death in 1935, his gross estate--comprising mainly stocks and bonds and exclusive of the many works of art he bequeathed to the American Academy of Arts and Letters--was appraised at $212,710, equivalent to about $2,790,655 in 2002. (13) The painter Jerome Myers (1867-1940) wrote in 1940:

In the army of artists, Childe Hassam was like a major general, covered
with medals and honors, with stripes of long service. He commanded the
art dealers, issuing his orders of the day, supervising the galleries, a
general whose word was law to 57th Street. He was an artist to salute
for his excellent record, in full possession of his power of production
and--what is a major point--with a keen knowledge of distribution, the
tactical ability to place his work. (14)

Hassam attracted critical approval as early as 1882 when his first one-man exhibition impelled a Boston journalist to write: "The collection of watercolors now on view in Williams and Everett's Fine Art Room introduces to the public a young artist of exceptional talent and of more than ordinary promise." (15) In March 1887, after Hassam's departure for study in Europe, an exhibition and auction of 120 works was organized at Noyes, Cobb and Company in Boston to finance the trip. The critic for the Boston Advertiser felt that the urban scenes "manifest not only an extraordinarily clever perception, and an original way of seeing, but also an artistic grasp of fleeting effects which is little short of masterly." (16)