Surf and Rocks

1906

Childe Hassam American, 1859-1935

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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About the Artwork

In this focused study of a rocky shore, Childe Hassam offers a plunging view that omits a horizon line. Looking down, the painter used bright highlights of sunlight reflecting off the water to trace the undulating surface of the ocean, the foam of saltwater crashing on rocks, and the shifting colors of the rocks as waves wash over them.

Hassam painted Appledore Island in the Isles of Shoals off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire over nearly thirty years of summer visits. The island provided him with respite from the summer heat in the cities where he spent the cooler months, beautiful natural settings for painting outdoors, and the companionship of a community of artists and writers. In his early visits to Appledore in the 1880s, he painted lush studies of the garden grown by poet Celia Thaxter. After her death in 1894, he shifted his attention to the dramatic contrasts of the island’s rocky coastline.

Title Surf and Rocks

Artwork Date 1906

Artist Childe Hassam

Life Dates 1859-1935

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 20 × 30 inches (50.8 × 76.2 cm) Framed: 31 1/4 × 41 3/8 × 2 inches (79.4 × 105.1 × 5.1 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Lizzie Merrill Palmer Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 19.19

Markings

Signed Signed and dated, at lower right: Childe Hassam, 1906

Inscriptions Inscribed, on back: C H 1906

Provenance

Childe Hassam until 1919;
1919-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Burroughs, Clyde H. "Accessions: Painting by Childe Hassam." Bulletin of the DMA 13, no. 6 (April 1919): p. 43-44.

A Retrospective Group of Paintings Representative of the Life Work of Childe Hassam. Exh. cat., Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery. Buffalo, New York, 1929.

Impressionismus: Amerika-Frankreich-Russland. Exh. cat., Kunstforum. Vienna, 2002.

Crane, Michael. Detroit’s Annual Exhibition of American Art: The Foundation of a Collection. (2005) www.dia.org/research/online_publications/annual_american_art

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