Woman with Umbrella
1893
Medium
Pen and black ink and watercolor, heightened with white gouache on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
22.6 × 13.3 cm (8 15/16 × 5 1/4 in.)
Classification
watercolor
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
75038
Art Historical Context
Childe Hassam's *Woman with Umbrella* (1893) is a delicate gem from the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints Drawings department. Created on ivory wove paper measuring just 22.6 × 13.3 cm, this intimate employs pen and black ink, watercolor and heightened white gouache—a technique that adds luminous highlights, mimicking the play of light central to Impressionism. Ham, a pioneering American Impressionist (1859–1935), drew inspiration from French masters like Monet during his Paris years in the 1880s. By 1893, back in the U.S., he captured everyday urban scenes with loose brushwork and vibrant co...
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...