Childe Hassam (1859–1935)

CHILDE HASSAM (1859–1935)
Malheur Lake, Eastern Oregon, 1908
Watercolor, pastel, crayon, and Chinese white on paper, 7 x 10 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed (at lower left): ‘CH. oct 3d 1908 / Malheur Lake, Malheur desert, Eastern Oregon / Childe Hassam 1908; (at lower right): Long line of light, rim of the sea. (It is an ancient inland sea) / note of whole—fluidity! A bright light alkali spot middle distance / sky low in lights but light and liquid. Maintain value of the sea. same blue more violet. / Foreground of sage brush and grease wood. Hard pass / Tawny / like clouds, lower in tone

RECORDED: Royal Cortissoz, “Ruger Donoho and Some Others ... Childe Hassam’s Water Colors,” New-York Tribune, November 23, 1916, p. 11 // “Childe Hassam’s Etchings,” The Sun (New York), November 27, 1916, p. 4 // Margaret E. Bullock, Childe Hassam: Impressionist in the West, exhib. cat. (Portland, Oregon: Portland Art Museum, 2004), p. 101, as “Malheur Lake” 

EXHIBITED: Frederick Keppel & Co., New York, November 18–December 2, 1916, Exhibition of Etchings and Drawings by Childe Hassam, no. 67, as “Malheur Lake, pencil and crayon”

EX COLL.: the artist, 1908–25; to [Macbeth Gallery, New York, 1925]; to Mr. Ralph T. King, Cleveland, Ohio, 1925; to his daughter, Frances King (Mrs. Gilbert) Schafer; to her son and daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert P. Schafer, Jr., New York, until 1922; by descent in the family, 2022 until the present

Hassam made a second trip to Oregon in the autumn of 1908, arriving in Portland in early September and departing in late November. The majority of his time was spent in eastern Oregon where, accompanied by Wood and another Portlander, Judge Charles H. Carey, he camped at the legendary P Ranch in Harney County, on the shore of the Blitzen River (also known as the Donner und Blitzen River). Hassam’s works from his 1908 sojourn in eastern Oregon include lyrical oils, among them Golden Afternoon (1908; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), in which he captured the shimmering luminosity of his environment, as well as its inherent beauty. In keeping with his longstanding practice of exploring the aesthetic possibilities of different formats, he also created small panel paintings executed on easily portable cigar box lids, as well as impromptu watercolor sketches such as Malheur Lake, Eastern Oregon.

An oasis in the high desert of southeastern Oregon, Malheur Lake––now a national wildlife refuge––is one of three lakes created by water flowing down from the local hills and mountains. Surrounded by wetlands and dry, mineral-encrusted playas, various grasses, sagebrush, and other types of local vegetation, this shallow waterway and its vast surroundings appealed to Hassam. Working on the spot, he divided his composition into distinctive areas of landscape and sky bisected in the middleground by the flat expanse of water and a distant mountain range. Consistent with his love of watercolor––with its transparent, light-reflecting quality––Hassam applied his colors in the deft painterly manner for which he was known, eschewing detail and specificity in order to capture the underlying essence of his subject. To be sure, the descriptive notes on the this watercolor underscore Hassam’s interest in translating the fleeting moment into paint, thereby creating an “impression” of nature that he surely intended as a prelude to a more finished work that has yet to be discovered.