Impressionists in an American Light: The Art of Childe Hassam and Maurice Prendergast

From Le Place Concorde to Times Square - not to mention Trafalgar - nations united in an unprecedented global conflict observed "Allies Day" in May of 1917. This show of wartime solidarity was captured at the New York end by Frederick Childe Hassam, a Boston area native who had spent several years honing his craft and building his reputation in France.

Maurice Prendergast, Hassam's contemporary, did likewise. Newfoundland-born but a Bostonian from childhood, he first reached France in the early 1890s. Though slightly too late to meet Hassam there, he was exposed to similar cultural currents and many of the same personalities.

For ambitious young painters and adventurous collectors of the fin de siecle, Paris was mecca, Monet the prophet and Impressionism the faith - evolving in due course to the less realistic Post-Impressionism of van Gogh, Vuillard and Cezanne. By virtue of his earlier arrival in Europe, Hassam developed a technique reflective of the former style, while Prendergast tended toward the latter with its broader areas of floating color.

"Sparkling" is a word often chosen by critics to depict Hassam's work. Like Monet, he used light to define space, applying delicate, broken brushstrokes.

His usual selection of urban subjects was more kin to Gustave Caillabotte, however. Another older realist to whom he owed a debt was Giuseppe DeNitti, known for cityscapes with broad foregrounds and deep perspective. This is not to say that Hassam confined himself to the urban scene. He also painted portraits, interiors, gardens and seascapes.

Allies' Day, May 1917
Childe Hassam


Fifth Avenue in Winter Childe Hassam	Sunset at Sea Childe Hassam

Prendergast opted for parks and beaches as his typical subjects. He enjoyed depicting crowds at leisure. The extreme vividness of his palette prompted one critic to liken his work to "an explosion in a color factory." This remark was made after the 1908 opening of the only exhibition held by a group called "The Eight," which included the legendary painter and teacher, Robert Henri. None of Prendergast's works sold then.

He met a warmer reception at the fabled Armory Show of 1913. Henry Adams wrote that he "stood out as the most modern and formally advanced artist in America, the first...to absorb the achievements of Bonnard, Vuillard and Cezanne."

Central Park by Maurice Prendergast
Central Park
Maurice Prendergast

Despite critical favor among the cognoscenti, Prendergast realized scant success in his lifetime. "I'm glad they've found out I'm not crazy after all," he reportedly said to the deathbed news that he'd been awarded a major prize by the Corcoran Gallery.

Hassam, by contrast, died 11 years later at the top of the heap, acknowledged dean of American painting - disavowing all foreign influences, by the way, since isolationism was in style during the 1930's.

Through subsequent decades, both artists went largely ignored in the U.S. The post-World War II Impressionist art boom largely passed them by until quite recent years, when critics pronounced Hassam and Prendergast the best of our indigenous Impressionists (apart from the permanent expat' Cassatt). Several museum shows have lately expanded public awareness of their art.

Umbrellas in the Rain by Maurice Prendergast

Umbrellas in the Rain
Maurice Prendergast