Richard Caton Woodville & Frederick Childe Hassam Meet The Masters

Frederick Childe Hassam Born in 1859 and died in 1935 at the age of 75. He was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Hassam produced over 3,000 paintings, oils, watercolors, etchings, and lithographs over the course of his career, and was an influential American artist of the early 20th century. General Overview - Impressionism began in France when a group of young and talented artists decided to rebel against the established art critics, called the Salon in France, and form a new style of painting all their own. Impressionists wanted to capture a moment in time. Critics said that their work was merely "impressions" of reality and the name stuck. What are the characteristics of Impressionism? The Impressionists wanted to capture a moment in time. They were more concerned with the light and color of the moment than with the details of objects they were painting. They often painted outdoors and worked quickly to capture the light before it changed. They used rapid brush strokes and often used unmixed color to save time. They used unusual visual angles and common everyday subjects. 

Using an innovative change of palette, Hassam painted two versions of Grand Prix Day in 1887. Inspired by the work of French Impressionists, he painted softer, more diffuse colors, full of light, with free brush strokes.

Avenue of the Allies by Frederick Childe Hassam – 1918 The most distinctive and famous works of Hassam's later life comprise the set of some thirty paintings known as the "Flag series". The Avenue In The Rain by Childe Hassam on the wall of the Oval Office 2009 Avenue of the Allies by Frederick Childe Hassam – 1918

Hassam specialized in illustrations for children’s stories in magazines such as Harper’s Weekly and Scribner’s Monthly

Hassam’s career continued to be even more successful, where he earned as much as $6,000 per painting in 1909 (equivalent to roughly $160,000 today). Flag paintings by Hassam are in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Historical Society, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Princeton University Art Museum and the National Gallery of Art.

Richard Caton Woodville Born in 1825 and died in 1855 at the age of 30. He was an American artist from Baltimore who spent his professional career in Europe. Woodville had a short but intense career, where he produced fewer than 20 paintings. He was considered a American genre-scene painter. They were well known in their time through exhibition and prints and have remained prominent in the canon of American painters. “Genre" paintings depict scenes of everyday life.   

His paintings depict contemporary life and realistic period interiors, while using colorful, closely observed narrative detail. The themes Woodville represented offer a unique perspective on both America and Europe in the decades preceding the Civil War and capture a period of rapid social, political, and technological transformation. It seems symbolic that there are eight white men gathered in this group. There's also a white woman, but she's barely in the picture owing to her placement inside an adjacent window. She leans out of that open window, eagerly listening. A black man seated on the hotel steps and a black youth standing next to him also listen to the news. Although not much is known about Woodville's politics, he is sensitive to marginalized people War News from Mexico(1848)

Best known for detailed depictions of contemporary interior scenes Most of Woodville paintings were reproduced as a popular print.  The Sailor’s Wedding(1852) 

His most significant paintings take place in taverns, private houses and other places where people of assorted demographic backgrounds gather; and they're often interested in the latest news.

New Eyes on America, the most comprehensive work on Woodville to date, reproduces all of the artist’s known works. This important book shines new light on the formation, historical and social context of this engaging painter. His son Richard Caton Woodville Jr. is an artist too. Woodville Jr. liked to paint battle scene pictures in the late 19th – early 20th century. Five essays explore Woodville’s artistic genius, his Baltimore upbringing, his education at the Düsseldorf School, his place in the international art world, and his technique, which was acclaimed for its attention to detail and color. Politics at an Oyster House 1848

What are the differences between Impressionist and Genre paintings?

Art Project Although, Hassam joined many different schools to learn painting, he preferred self-studying better. He found, “the academy is the personification of routine… crushes all originality out of growing men. It tends to put them in a rut and it keeps them in it“ - Childe Hassam Art Project - use the colors Red, White and Blue to make whatever your heart desires