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Flags, Afternoon on the Av- enue, 1917, exemplifi es Childe Hassam’s most famous series and holds his auction record of $7.9 million, paid at Christie’s in May 1998. ARTIST DOSSIER: Childe Hassam BY ANDREW RUSSETH

*+,-. /0.1,2.34 56787’1 2.9,1,:3 to hang works by such con- Hassam’s works—a similar canvas from the same year, Flags, temporary artists as Glenn Ligon and Ed Ruscha in the White Afternoon on the Avenue, brought an artist record $!,"##,$%% House made headlines in #%%", few news outlets noted that he at Christie’s in &""'. gave Childe Hassam’s &"&! view of a ; ag-< lled Fifth Avenue, Hassam’s reputation has had downs as well as ups. For most Avenue in the Rain, pride of place in the Oval Of< ce. It is perhaps of his half-century career, the artist received widespread acclaim. understandable that this choice attracted less attention: Hassam’s “Childe Hassam was like a major general, covered with medals depictions of such patriotic displays are among the most iconic and honors, with stripes of long service,” painter Jerome Myers American works of art, all too appropriate for the head of state’s wrote in his &"(% autobiography, Artist in Manhattan. After

CHRISTIE’S inner sanctum. They have also been among the most popular of Hassam’s death in &")$, however, his oeuvre fell out of fashion as

ARTINFO.COM | JULY/AUGUST 2011 ART+AUCTION

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7 2 Anthony Marshall privately sold his mother’s collectors, resulting in huge prices. Brooke ums, Astor’sthe limited sonnumber on the market are chased bymajority of these ensconced in the nation’s standards< of the U.S. and other produced around )% Allied works ; the depicting high- powers. With the dealer . During World back < War I, the artist Hassam’s retrospective, < a presented D.C., Washington, in in the mid &"=%s when the , interest in his often-idyllic subjects. Interest revived tions of the Depression and World War II dampened grit of the ascendant , and the priva- tastes turned from his brand of to the rst were the ; rst rst major show in )= years. “What came ag ,” says the New York nest muse- Flags, Flags, ying ying and prints at the -based Skinner Auctioneers,; which in May #%&% sold and his mature style begins to reveal itself Julian, a innear requirementpictures for likeadvanced American artists of the time. he Here moved to Paris with his wife, Kathleen Maud, to study at the Europe Académie in &''). His formal training in the U.S. was in traveling and minimal, while in learned &''=he techniques applying the son of a cutlery merchant—in a Barbizon style, Boston—he was born in nearby Dorchester in &'$" , native his painted and illustrator workedhe an as ral landscapes. Before his foray into Impressionism, urban shimmering street scenes as well as his pasto- < proli was tor P.Stuart Feld on a catalogue raisonné. Hassam working &with Hirschl Adler of New York direc- a variety of styles,” says Kathleen whoBurnside, is output. “He had a range of interests and painted in edly later sold for twice that. his Impressionist phase, are frequently the most sought after,” says Dara always the highest-priced artist.” dealer Ira Spanierman concurs: “Among says the Starr, American “Hassam Impressionists,and Chase he vie was tuted.”for Thethe defectorstop formed positiona newtoday.” group “there known is The too as much Newthe business and too Ten,York little art in amongthe society as whom, at present consti- among others, to protest the fact, as stated with in William their Merritt Chase, secession Edmund C. manifesto,Tarbell, thatand Willard L. Metcalf, gressive Society of American Artists. In &'"!in, thehowever, leading he arts resigned,organizations together of the day. In &'"% he was electedthe < to the pro- uid,” says Robin Starr, the director of American and European paintings ne &''! pastel Dans Dans le parc But the ; “For purists, works painted from circa &''$ to &'"$, the high point of In &''" , Hassam settled in New York and became a passionate agitator c and versatile, garnering praise for his his for praise garnering versatile, and c , &"&!, for $&% million in . #%%# It report- ag pictures are just part of Hassam’s , &''". “His handling of paint becomes quicker and more At the Grand Prix ART+AUCTION . %%% , ="" $ for JULY/AUGUST 2011 JULY/AUGUST Paris, Winter Day Winter Paris, Force, Force, in New York. Appledore Afternoon, watercolor and the mid 1890s at Sotheby’s in May; brought $2,098,500 Michel period estimate; the Paris- $500,000 low than double its $1,538,500, more New York for year at Sotheby’s York Rainy Day, New The watercolor Clockwise from left: , 1892, sold last

| , 1888, Quai Quai St. ARTINFO.COM , at Debra Summer , &''!, » 55/24/11 3:42:53PM / 2 4 / 1 1

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P CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: TWO IMAGES, SOTHEBY’S; TIM PYLE, DEBRA FORCE FINE ART, NEW YORK M Mitchell, Sotheby’s director of American art. The most desirable include depictions of bustling New York and Paris streets and of the majestic landscapes of rural and the Isle of Shoals, in , where Hassam vacationed, visiting his longtime friend the poet , who early on advised him to drop his given name, Frederick. During the past &$ years, these pictures have regularly fetched more than $& million at auction. At Sotheby’s in May, Quai St. Michel, &''', showing a young woman browsing the stalls along the Seine, fetched $#,%"',$%%, a respectable sum if Left: The oil Gloucester signi< cantly less than the $),%#!,$%% it brought in Harbor, 1899, at &""' at Christie’s, re; ecting the diminished power Spanierman, New York, shows the of the American-art market. Privately, pristine loosened strokes of street scenes with well-rendered < gures—Hassam’s Hassam’s later work. Below: Etchings like handling of human subjects varies considerably—have The Writing Desk, reportedly sold for around $&% million. 1915, $15,000 at New York’s Harris Hassam also garners strong, stable prices for Schrank, offer an media that collectors sometimes consider secondary affordable foothold for newcomers to to oil painting. “Watercolors and pastels can sell for Hassam. over $# million if the quality is right,” says the New York dealer Debra Force. (Hassam, ever an organizer, By his $%s, Hassam’s style had begun to change. “After the turn of the founded the New York Water Color Club in &'"%.) century, his < gures become very stylized and rather wooden,” says Mitchell. These pieces, however, can often be had for much less. “His technique becomes a bit more Post-Impressionist—his brushstrokes Force has a small watercolor sketch of an Isle of Shoals become broader.” In keeping with his high-society clientele, Hassam painted landscape lacking any of the painter’s prized depictions numerous East Hampton golf scenes during this period. “Few people care for of ; owers for $&!$,%%%. Adelson has an approximately those,” says Spanierman. “The great big ones maybe sell for $&%%,%%%.” &$-by-"-inch &'"# ; oral in the same medium “People avoid looking at some of the later pieces,” says Force. !) for slightly more than $$%%,%%%. Etchings offer a com- “You have to pick and choose, but the quality is sometimes there.” parably affordable entry into Hassam’s work. This was Mitchell points to the stunning roughly three-foot-square canvas Sunset one of the few media he did not embrace immediately. at Sea, &"&&, which brought $),!)!,%%% at Christie’s in #%%!, close to the “He really didn’t start his printmaking career until height of the market. &"&$, at the age of $=,” says the dealer Harris Schrank, In #%%' prices for American art, as for most segments, tumbled. who has a &"&' ; ag drypoint for $($,%%%, near the Christie’s American art head Eric Widing believes they are rebound- high end for the artist’s prints. ing, along with volume, to #%%$–%= levels. Still, this category may not recover as quickly as some others. Future growth will require a strong U.S. economy and perhaps the cultivation of new buyers. “The old col- lectors”—the Mellons, the Astors—“are fading away,” says Spanierman. Among European connoisseurs of Impressionism, notes Widing, “there’s always been interest in crossover < gures like Cassatt and Sargent, and we’re beginning to see it with Frederick Frieseke and perhaps Hassam.” Given the desirability and scarcity of his trademark subjects, Hassam’s work is poised to fare relatively well. And it can’t hurt that one of his pictures hangs in the Oval Of< ce. Whenever Mitchell sees a photo of the Hassam, she says, “I always think, ‘I wish we could sell that.’”

From the Files + Hassam’s prodigious output of well more than 2,000 works astounded + Flags, Afternoon on the Avenue, 1917, many of his contemporaries. “He set Hassam’s auction high, selling at produces more canvases than any man Christie’s in 1998 from the collection of I know,” painter J. Alden Weir wrote. Thomas Mellon Evans for $7.9 million. “I wish I had that power.” + Hassam’s friends sometimes called him + In May 2008 collector Halsey Minor Muley Hassam, alluding to Muley won Hassam’s 1887 Paris, Winter Day Hacén, who became sultan of Granada at Sotheby’s for $3.96 million. He never in 1464. Some scholars believe this paid for it, and the work was resold at nickname may explain the crescent the same house a year later, after the moon he began placing before his peak in the American-art market, for signature in 1885. $2,322,500. FROM TOP: SPANIERMAN GALLERY, LLC, NEW YORK; HARRIS SCHRANK FINE PRINTS, NEW YORK

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