Childe Hassam: patterns of appreciation

Magazine Antiques, July, 2004 by H. Barbara Weinberg

(11) "Art Fund Created by Hassam's Will," New York Times, November 13, 1935, p. 18. The 2002 equivalent of $100,000 is $896,501 according to the Web site http://eh.net/hmit/ppowerusd/dollar_answer.php

(12) Hassam to Royal Cortissoz, December 18(?), 1926 (Royal Cortissoz papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut), quoted in Hiesinger, Childe Hassam, American Impressionist, p. 169.

(13) "Petition in the Matter of the Tax Upon the Estate of Frederick Childe Hassam, April 30, 1936, Schedule A" (Surrogate's Court, Suffolk County, New York). See also "Hassam Estate is Appraised at $212,710," East Hampton [New York] Star, July 9, 1936, p. 2. For the 2002 equivalent, see the Web site cited in n. 11.

(14) Jerome Myers, Artist in Manhattan (American Artists' Group, New York, 1940), p. 101.

(15) Unidentified clipping (Hassam papers and correspondence, reel NAA1, frame 508). The exhibition was Water Colors by Fred C. Hassam, Williams and Everett's Fine Art Rooms, Boston, in the autumn of 1882.

(16) "Mr. Hassam's Exhibition," undated clipping from the Boston Advertiser (Hassam papers and correspondence, reel NAA1, frame 508). The exhibition was Exhibition and Sale of Works in Oil and Water Color by Childe Hassam, Noyes, Cobb and Company, March 9-10, 1887.

(17) H. T. Woolf, "American Artists in the Salon," American Art Illustrated, vol. 1 (1887), p. 262.

(18) "Exhibition of Mr. Hassam's Paintings at Noyes, Cobb & Co.'s Gallery," Boston Evening Transcript, 1889 (Hassam papers and correspondence, reel NAA1, frame 509). The exhibition was Exhibition and Private Sale of Paintings by Mr. Childe Hassam (Noyes, Cobb and Company, Boston, March 11-23, 1889).

(19) "In the World of Art," New York Times, February 2, 1896, p. 12.

(20) "Exhibition of Ten American Painters," New York Sun, April 1, 1902, p. 6, quoted in Kathleen M. Burnside, "Childe Hassam," in William H. Gerdts et al., Ten American Painters (Spanierman Gallery, New York, 1990), p. 105.

(21) "Annual Show of The Ten Painters," New York Evening Mail, March 21, 1906, p. 7; quoted in Burnside, "Childe Hassam," p. 103 (Burnside, pp. 103-108, quotes other similar comments). See also, for example, Charles L. Buchanan, "The Ambidextrous Childe Hassam," International Studio, vol. 57 (supplement) (January 1916), pp. 83-86.

(22) Lockman interview with Hassam, February 2, 1927, p. 25 (Lockman papers, reel 503, frame 383).

(23) Childe Hassam, "Twenty-five Years of American Painting," Art News, vol. 26 (April 14, 1928), p. 22.

(24) Samuel Johnson Woolf, "Hassam Speaks Out for American Art," New York Times Magazine, October 14, 1934, p. 7.

(25) Childe Hassam, will dated December 20, 1934, and "Petition in the Matter of the Tax Upon the Estate of Frederick Childe Hassam, April 30, 1936, Schedule A," Surrogate's Court, Suffolk County, New York. See also receipt dated January 7, 1936 (Hassam papers and correspondence, reel NAA2, frame 323). "Art Fund Created by Hassam's Will," New York Times, November 13, 1935, p. 18. Hassam's inclusion of Canadian artists and Canadian museums may reflect his wife's Canadian origin. Hassam had been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1920. The academy's first purchases with the accumulated capital in the Hassam Fund were made in 1946; sales of works by Hassam for the sake of building the fund ceased in 1968.