Childe Hassam (1859–1935)

CHILDE HASSAM (1859–1935)
Katherine Thaxter, 1893
Pastel on paper, 10 1/2 x 10 1/8 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed (at lower right): ‘Childe / Hassam / July 24 / 1893; (on the back): Property of / Katherine Thaxter / Washington / Connecticut / Portrait of Katherine Thaxter / Painted c. 1891 at the Isle [sic] of Shoals
Executed in 1893

EX COLL.: Katherine Thaxter, Washington, Connecticut; [Giovanni Castano, Boston, until 1957]; to [Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1957]; to [Charles Lock, New York, 1957]; to private collection, New York; to sale 2181, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, March 27, 1963, no. 40, illus. as “Portrait of a Child, ... dated July 24, 1895”; to Mr. and Mrs. Irving Felt, New York, 1963; to Mr. Irving Felt, New York; to [Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1994]; to Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Maguire, III, Los Angeles, California, 1994, until the present

The young granddaughter of Celia Thaxter and her husband Levi, Katherine was born in New Haven, Connecticut on August 4, 1890, to Roland Thaxter (1858–1932) and his wife, the former Mabel Gray Freeman. Along with her siblings Charles (1888–1906), Elizabeth (1894–1978), and Edmund (1900–1996), Katherine grew up in a cultured household that put a high value on art and science.

The circumstances surrounding the creation of Hassam’s portrait of blue-eyed Katherine remain a mystery. It was presumably executed when Roland and his family were vacationing on the Isles of Shoals and was likely presented as a gift to Celia or Roland and his wife as a token of friendship. Rendered on-the-spot on a sheet of tan paper, Hassam varied his technique, interpreting Katherine’s face with softly blended strokes of pink and pale blue chalks that effectively convey his subject’s cherubic features, her delicate profile, and that aura of childhood that makes the image so appealing. The artist’s dexterity as a “peintre en pastel” is also apparent in his more vigorous handling of Katherine’s bonnet and jacket, his use of contrasting tones of deep blue and white and his method of loose hatching serving to imbue the portrait with a vivid sense of immediacy.