The South Ledges, Appledore

About this artwork

Hassam spent many summers on Appledore Island off the coast of Maine. Every year, he and a circle of musicians, writers and other artists made an informal colony based at the home of his friend, the poet Celia Thaxter. In Thaxter's gardens and on the rocky beaches, Hassam used the flickering brushwork and brilliant colors he had adopted in France to capture the spangled light of Appledore's brief summer. This painting evokes the leisurely, seasonal rhythms of America's priveleged families in the...

Art Historical Context

Childe Hassam’s *The South Ledges, Appledore* captures a luminous summer moment on the rocky coast of Appledore Island, Maine. The artist spent many seasons there among an informal artistic colony centered at the home of poet Celia Thaxter. Using the flickering brushwork and vibrant palette he had absorbed during his time in France, Hassam translated the island’s fleeting sunlight into an American Impressionist vision, where sea, rocks, and figure shimmer together. In the painting a fashionably dressed woman stands full-length on the ledges, her hat and parasol shielding her from the bright g...

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...