Childe Hassam

A Day in the Life

An Island Retreat

Early Morning Calm depicts the coastline of Appledore Island in the Isles of Shoals, a group of islands six miles off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire. Hassam first went there in the mid-1880s because of the informal artist’s salon hosted by the poet Celia Laighton Thaxter (see “Arts Intersected”), and he returned most summers until about 1916. In fact, ten percent of Hassam’s artwork depicts the Isles of Shoals. What does Appledore Island look like today and how does it compare to the way Hassam captures it in paint? See for yourself in the following video produced by the North Carolina Museum of Art.

In the Footsteps of Childe Hassam: GoPro Footage from Appledore Island from The North Carolina Museum of Art on Vimeo.

Further reading: David Park Curry, Childe Hassam: An Island Garden Revisited (Denver: The Denver Art Museum, 1990).

Tools and Techniques

Color, Light, and Space

As you look at this painting, do you get an impression of expansive space shimmering with light? What compositional tools did Hassam use to create this effect? Learn more in the following audio clip with Will South, Chief Curator at The DAI from 2009–2011.

Transcript:

Childe Hassam was one of many nineteenth-century Americans who became excited about Impressionism, which, at that time, was modern painting. It was modern because Impressionists used many individual strokes of bright color to make an image, as opposed to creating a smooth, polished, almost photographic paint surface. In this painting, Early Morning Calm, you see how the numerous daubs of paint add up to a shimmering surface that seems to be reacting to outdoor light. Impressionists, in fact, painted out-of-doors to achieve these effects. Childe Hassam painted still life and figures, but he always returned to landscape because in addition to the intense outdoor light and color he could also paint atmosphere. That means he could interpret light and color close-up, as seen here in the rocky shore, as well as how light and color change over distance, past the horizon line.  In Early Morning Calm, Childe Hassam captures a sense of great space, making an otherwise simple composition feel open and expansive.

Behind the Scenes

Look Closer

Just for Kids

Create!

When Childe Hassam completed this painting, he dedicated it to his friend Celia Laighton Thaxter. She wrote poetry and lived near the ocean.

Create your own acrostic poem inspired by this painting. An acrostic poem is a poem that spells out a word or phrase from the first letter in a word. Base your acrostic poem on the word Seaside. Look at the painting and see if you can find words that will spell out Seaside.

Signs & Symbols

Dig Deeper

Arts Intersected

A Sea of Words

Hassam dedicated this painting to the poet and journalist Celia Laighton Thaxter (1835–1894). She had a house with a magnificent garden on Appledore Island off the Maine and New Hampshire coast, which often served as an informal salon for artists. Hassam did numerous paintings and pastel drawings of the garden from 1889–1894, as well as the illustrations for Thaxter’s book An Island Garden (1894).

Early Morning Calm provides a quick look, or impression, of an ocean scene. So does Thaxter’s poem, “At Dawn.” Compare the sensations described in the poem with what you see in the painting and consider how the words may enrich the image and vice versa.

The Sculpture Speaks

Did You Know?

Expert Opinion

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About the Artist

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