Childe Hassam

Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Childe Hassam became one of America’s most noted Impressionist painters, but he never labelled himself in that way asserting he was more interested in the emotional content of his paintings than the technique of applying color. Watercolor was another specialty, and Hassam was one of the founders of the New York Water Color Society.

He studied at the Academie Julian under Louis Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre, but he rejected the Academy’s teaching methods of conformity to focus on the tenets of Impressionism. He was a founder of the Ten American Painters, active from 1898 to 1919 in rebellion against what the members perceived as mediocrity of the Society of American Artists, a group led by John La Farge and George Inness who earlier had defected from the National Academy of Design.