Diamond Cove, Isles of Shoals

Childe Hassam

1908

A leading figure of the American Impressionist movement, Childe Hassam developed a distinctive painting style characterized by quick brushwork, solid volumes, and close attention to the changing effects of atmosphere and light. "Diamond Cove, Isles of Shoals" depicts a granite outcropping on the southwest side of an island known as Appledore, part of the Isles of Shoals off the Atlantic coast near the border of Maine and New Hampshire. Hassam aimed to transform the vision of the natural world into paint through the lens of individual perception. A range of translucent brown and blue tones suggests the complex visual interplay between the transparent water and jagged rocks, with short, thick marks evoking the rippling motion of the water. In the upper left, a rocky formation juts out above the water, while submerged rocks visible in the shallow, clear water of low tide create an effect of visual unity across the picture plane. Hassam’s tight focus on a selected element from nature illustrates his interest in using a modern style of painting to capture the sensations of a specific moment and place. [Exhibition label, 2013]

Artist Childe Hassam (American, 1859–1935)
Title Diamond Cove, Isles of Shoals
Date 1908
Medium Oil on board
Dimensions unframed | 25 1/4 x 30 3/8 in.
Credit line University purchase, Bixby Fund, 1914
Object number WU 2186

Technique oil painting
Work type painting

American Impressionist: Childe Hassam and the Isles of Shoals
North Carolina Museum of Art, 03/19/2016 - 06/19/2016
Peabody Essex Museum, 07/16/2016 - 11/06/2016

American Places: Painting the Landscape in the Nineteenth Century
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/20/2013 - 01/06/2014

Art and the Mind-Brain
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/27/2012 - 04/16/2012

A Gallery of Modern Art
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 08/09/1994 - 10/16/1994

Nineteenth Century Art from the Collection
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/19/1986 - 04/01/1986

Nature and the Figure
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/09/1983 - 03/06/1983

Impressionism Reflected: American Art, 1890–1920
Saint Louis Art Museum, 05/06/1982 - 06/27/1982

The Way We See It: America by Americans 1850–1980
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 10/10/1982 - 11/07/1982

The Centennial Exhibition
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/15/1981 - 10/11/1981

Portraits and Landscapes

Salute to St. Louis
Stix, Baer & Fuller Department Store, 10/04/1965 - 10/16/1965

Opening Exhibition of Mark C. Steinberg Memorial Hall
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 04/29/1960

Exhibition of a Retrospective Group of Paintings of Childe Hassam
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, 03/09/1929 - 04/08/1929

Inscription Recto, center left, in black paint:

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