Bailey's Beach, Newport, R.I.
1901
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
61 × 66 cm (24 × 26 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
107862
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Childe Hassam, like other American Impressionists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, recorded scenes of leisure and recreation, especially country vacation retreats. This painting portrays fashionable Bailey’s Beach in Newport, Rhode Island, an exclusive seaside town known at the time for its wealth and luxury. Hassam depicted sand dunes rising from behind the beach with the promenade and its costumed bathers at a distance, reinforcing the fact that he, and the viewer, are excluded from ...
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...