Saint-Cloud
1889
Medium
Watercolor on paper
Dimensions
18 × 27.5 cm (7 1/8 × 10 7/8 in.)
Classification
watercolor
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
53231
Art Historical Context
Childe Hassam created this delicate watercolor in 1889 while living in France, a pivotal period when the American artist immersed himself in European art traditions. The modest scale—roughly the size of a sheet of stationery—suggests an intimate, on-the-spot study, likely made during one of his excursions to the historic park and gardens of Saint-Cloud outside Paris. At this moment, Hassam was absorbing the light-filled techniques of the Impressionists, translating their emphasis on fleeting atmospheric effects into his own emerging style. Watercolor proved an ideal medium for Hassam’s explor...
About the Artist
Childe Hassam · 1859–1935
Frederick Childe Hassam, born on October 17, 1859, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, to a family of New England descent with ties to Nathaniel Hawthorne through his mother, Rosa Delia Hawthorne, displayed an early aptitude for art. After his father's cutlery business was ruined by the Great Boston Fire of 1872, Hassam apprenticed as a wood engraver under George E. Johnson while taking drawing and wate...