Childe Hassam

Happy Birthday Childe Hassam!! American Impressionist painter, born in 1859, Hassam was from Boston. He began his career in art as a wood engraver, providing commercial material for newspapers, eventually moving into oil painting. He continued in commercial illustration and children’s books in black and white, but after a tour of Europe he was impressed with Turner’s watercolors and this became his  preferred medium. He was a founder of The Ten and remained in the US while other American Impressionists settled in Europe. Impressionism did not rise in popularity in America until the dawn of the modern period in Europe. Hassam was most famous for his series of thirty Flag paintings late in his career, in support of American involvement in World War I. The one I have included here is The Avenue in the Rain, 1917.