Childe Hassam (1859–1935)

CHILDE HASSAM (1859–1935)
Morning Light, 1914
Oil on canvas, 34 x 34 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed (at lower left): ‘Childe Hassam 1914; (on the back): C. H. [circled] / 1914; (on a red-bordered label on the back): Morning Light

RECORDED: L. Merrick, “The Ten’s Annual Show,” American Art News 13 (March 20, 1915), pp. 2–3, as “The Morning Light” // “In the World of Art,” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 8, 1915, p. 20, as “Morning Light”// J. E. C., “The ‘Ten’ American Painters. Their Eighteenth Annual Exhibition Shows That Some of Them Have Advanced and Some Have Not,” The Evening Mail (New York), March 19, 1915, p. 12, as “Morning Light” // “Exhibitions in the Galleries: American Pictures at Knoedler’s,” Arts and Decoration 5 (October 1915): 475, as “Morning Light” // Royal Cortissoz, “The Art of Childe Hassam Studied at Full Length,” New-York Tribune, November 28, 1915, p. 19 illus., as “Morning Light” // “New Pictures by the Ten,” New-York Tribune, March 19, 1915, p. 9, as “Morning Light” // “Current News of Art and the Exhibitions,” The Sun (New York), November 28, 1915, p. 7 illus., as “Morning Light” // C. Owen Lublin, “Arts and Decoration,” Town and Country 70 (December 10, 1915), p. 24 // A. v. C., “Childe Hassam at Montross,” American Art News 14 (December 4, 1915), p. 5, as “Morning Light” // Charles L. Buchanan, “The Ambidexterous Childe Hassam,” International Studio 57 (January 1916), p. lxxxiii illus., as “Morning Light” // “Hold Reception at Showing of Fine Collection,” Buffalo Evening News, January 10, 1920, p. 5 // “An Exhibition of Important Works by a Number of America’s Leading Painters at the Albright Art Gallery,” Academy Notes 15 (July–December 1910), p. 65, as “Morning Light” // Nathaniel Pousette-Dart, ed., Childe Hassam (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1922), n.p. illus as “Morning Light” // Carlyle Burrows, “Art of the Week: A Good Round of New York One-Man Exhibitions. Childe Hassam,” New York Herald Tribune, March 2, 1947, p. C–8, as “Morning Light” // Vivien Raynor, “A Closer Look at Childe Hassam and Impressionism,” New York Times, December 20, 1987, sec. CN, p. 11 illus., as “Morning Light” // William A. Gerdts et al., Ten American Painters, exhib. cat. (New York: Spanierman Gallery, 1990), pp. 64, 181, as “Morning Light” // Warren Adelson, Jay E. Cantor, and William H. Gerdts, Childe Hassam: Impressionist (New York: Abbeville Press, 1999), pp. 62 fig. 67 illus. in color, 65, 213, 239, as “Morning Light” // Susan G. Larkin, The Cos Cob Art Colony: Impressionists on the Connecticut Shore (New York: National Academy of Design, 2001), pp. 158, 160 fig. 100 illus. in color, 161, 242, as “Morning Light” // H. Barbara Weinberg, “Childe Hassam, American Impressionist,” American Art Review 16 (July–August 2004), p. 127 illus. in color, as “Morning Light” // Susan G. Larkin, A Good Light: The Artist’s Studio in Cos Cob, exhib. cat. (Cos Cob, Connecticut: Greenwich Historical Society, 2012), pp. 15, 16 fig. 12 illus. in color, as “Morning Light”

EXHIBITED: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., December 15, 1914–January 17, 1915, Fifth Exhibition: Oil Paintings by Contemporary American Artists, no. 23 illus., as “Morning Light” // M. Knoedler & Co., New York, March 15–27, 1915, Eighteenth Annual Exhibition: Ten American Painters, no. 16, as “Morning Light” // M. Knoedler & Co., New York, Summer 1915, 8th Annual Summer Exhibition of Paintings by American Artists, no. 20, as “Morning Light” // Montross Gallery, New York, November 27–December 11, 1915, Exhibition of Pictures by Childe Hassam, no. 1, as “Morning Light” // Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, January 10–February 15, 1920, Exhibition of Important Works by a Number of America’s Leading Painters, no. 29, as “Morning Light” // Milch Galleries, New York, February 24–March 15, 1947, Childe Hassam: Paintings, no. 3, illus. on cover, as “The Morning Light” // The Lotos Club, New York, March 15–April 15, 1955, 85th Anniversary Exhibition: Childe Hassam, no. 24, as “Morning Light” // Milch Galleries, New York, December 5–30, 1955, Childe Hassam and American Impressionism, no. 3, as “Morning Light” // Babcock Galleries, New York, November 7–December 3, 1960, Childe Hassam: Exhibition of Paintings, no. 22, as “Morning Light” // Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, October 6–November 15, 1964, 1914: An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawing and Sculpture: In Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Baltimore Museum of Art, p. 86 no. 86, as “Morning Light” // Greenwich Historical Society, Greenwich Civic Center, Greenwich, Connecticut, December 11, 1987–January 10, 1988; Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut, December 11, 1987–January 10, 1988; Childe Hassam in Connecticut, illus. in color on cover, pp. 18, 30 no. 20, as “Morning Light.” // Adelson Galleries, New York, November 15–December 21, 1996, The American Impressionists, no. 21 illus. in color, as “Morning Light” // Adelson Galleries, New York, November 2–December 15, 1999, Childe Hassam: An American Impressionist, no. 21 illus. in color, as “Morning Light” // The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 10–September 2004, Childe Hassam: American Impressionist, pp. 154 fig. 163 illus. in color, 155, 239, 408 no. 84, as “Morning Light”

EX COLL.: the artist, 1914; [Montross Gallery, New York, 1915]; to William A. Rogers, Buffalo, New York, by 1920; to the estate of William A. Rogers, 1946; to sale 797, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, October 24, 1946, no. 65 illus., as “Lady at a Dressing Table”; to [Babcock Galleries, New York, and Milch Galleries, New York, 1946–64]; to Mr. Irving M. Felt, New York, 1964; to Elaine (Mrs. Irving M.) Felt, New York, 1983–85; to her children, Connie and Jonathan Felt, 1985–96; to [Adelson Galleries, New York, 1996]; to private collection, 1996 until the present

First explored by French impressionists such as Berthe Morisot, images of women engaged in the act of grooming and applying makeup were highly popular in Gilded Age America, giving the viewer a sense of encountering a very personal moment in day-to-day domestic life. Taking advantage of her proximity to the window—where through the transparent blinds we are afforded a glimpse of the building’s double-story porch bedecked with colorful blossoms—dark-haired Maud is completely absorbed with the task at hand: her negligee slipping casually over her right shoulder, she scrutinizes her face as she sits at her dressing table. Although Hassam posed his subject in profile with her back to the viewer, he nevertheless makes us very much aware of his spouse’s delicate features, which are reflected in the tall mirror on the left and in the small oval-shaped mirror Maud holds in her right hand. In so doing, Hassam pays homage to his alluring wife in relation to the theme of private rituals within the home in an inventive way.

Consistent with his aesthetic approach from the 1910s, Hassam adheres to a highly structured design wherein the vertical, horizontals, and diagonals of the furniture and architecture impart a taut geometry to the composition, acting as a foil to the feminine curves of the sitter, who is rendered in a realistic manner with fluent brushwork. At the same time, he conjoins this academic approach with his burgeoning interest in the lively patterning associated with post-Impressionism, as apparent in his portrayal of the window, interpreted in a divisionist manner with carefully applied strokes of pigment. However, as the title of the painting indicates, Hassam was primarily occupied with conveying the various types of luminosity that he experienced in idyllic Cob Cob, as well as establishing a lyrical mood through a subdued palette, in this case a medley of soft pinks, blues, yellow-golds and white which are balanced and offset by warm earth tones. The old-fashioned diaphanous shades diffuse the bright sunlight outside, creating gentle highlights that glance off Mrs. Hassam’s neck and left shoulder, as well as on portions of her peignoir and bodice in addition to the array of glass and silver accoutrements resting on the table. Widely exhibited in the years after it was painted, Morning Light caught the eye of many influential critics, among them Royal Cortissoz, who proclaimed in the New-York Herald Tribune:

The picture is beautiful because the artist in his intense, zestful way makes us see his subject as he saw it, an affair of lovely color, soft and equally lovely light, of a life at an utterly undramatic yet, somehow gracious and happy moment. The room is swimming in summer air. Its delicate hues are vivified as if by magic. It is vibrant with life, a triumph of technic and knowledge (Royal Cortissoz, “The Art of Childe Hassam Studied at Full Length,” New-York Tribune, November 28, 1915, p. 19).

When Morning Light was exhibited at the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy in 1920, an equally enthusiastic reviewer proclaimed: “the reflections of the shimmering sunlight through the open window gives a charming opalescent effect of color to the figure and interior of the room” and noted, as well, that the work was “owned and lent by William A. Rogers, Esq., of Buffalo” (“An Exhibition of Important Works by a Number of America’s Leading Painters at the Albright Art Gallery”). Among the many patrons who were drawn to Hassam’s window subjects—such as the businessman John Gellatly, the original owner of Tanagra—William A. Rogers (1851–1946) was a wealthy iron and steel magnate associated with the Tonawanda Iron and Steel Company and other regional iron and steamship concerns, as local banks, and civic organizations. A preeminent figure in the industrial life of western New York, Rogers is said to have been a man of taste, not only well traveled but “deeply interested in art,” collecting work by American artists and serving for many years on the board of directors of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy.