The Isle of Shoals (Primary Title)
Girl and the Sea, Isles of Shoals (Alternate Title)
Childe Hassam, American, 1859 - 1935 (Artist)
Fluid and vibrant, Hassam’s Isles of Shoals explores the elemental boundaries of water, air, and earth. Painted by one of America’s foremost impressionists at the turn of the 20th century, it positions a seated nude at the ocean’s edge. In the sharply tilted setting, she is visually enveloped by the sea, laid down in countless horizontal strokes of azure, gray, and turquoise. The painting is among the numerous coastal views that Hassam completed during regular summer visits to the Isles of Shoals, a cluster of islands off the New Hampshire coast. There he found inspiration, rejuvenation, and the friendship of poet and island resident Celia Laighton Thaxter, whose lyrical gardening book he illustrated.
Childe Hassam, American Impressionist, Special Exhibitions Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, June 10 – September 12, 2004
America Around 1900: Impressionism, Realism, and Modern Life, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Va., June 14 – September 17, 1995; Museum of Art, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, October 27 1995 – January 14, 1996
Childe Hassam ,City Streets and Rural Retreats, Maier Museum of Art, Randoph-Macon Woman's College, Lunchburg, Va., February 26 – April 16, 1995
A Stern and Lovely Scene: A Visual History of the Isle of Shoals, University Art Galleries, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, March 13 – April 20, 1978
The Nature of Landscape, Artmobile, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Va., September 1975 – December 1976
Encounter II: Color, Artmobile, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, September 1972 – February 1974
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