Frederick Childe Hassam


Childe Hassam near his studio behind Miss Florence’s boardinghouse painting Apple Trees in Bloom, Old Lyme. Photograph, 1904. Photo credit: Florence Griswold Museum.

Childe Hassam is credited with bringing Impressionism to Old Lyme. Before Hassam, the Old Lyme artists painted in style known as Tonalism. When he arrived in 1903, he was painting in a robust Impressionistic manner, using bright, high-key colors and thick, short brushstrokes that seemed to flicker on the canvas. His painting style had changed while he was in Europe, clearly influenced by the work of Claude Monet and other French artists (he sublet a studio used by Auguste Renoir while in Paris). He took on stylistic characteristics of French art, but painted subjects that expressed his proud American identity. Rather than painting Parisian cafés, Hassam depicted New York (draped in American flags) and frequented northeastern art colonies where his images of flower-filled gardens and white churches became symbols of old New England charm. Hassam was born in Dorchester, MA and died in Easthampton, NY. He summered in Old Lyme from 1903 to around 1907.

Primary Medium: Painting

Primary Stylistic Term: American Impressionist, Tonalist

HAHS Affiliations: Hassam is associated with many American Impressionists in Connecticut, including those from the Bush-Holley House, Florence Griswold Museum, and Weir Farm National Historic Site.

Recommended Publications: Childe Hassam in Connecticut By Kathleen M. Burnside (Lyme Historical Society, 1987)