Childe Hassam's art at first is very disconcerting, particularly under a
strong midday light. One has at first the feeling that a religious
adherence to a certain impressionistic technique is of more importance
to him than anything else. Entering his gallery from the Chase
collection, one is almost overcome with the contrast of light and dark
presented by these two masters. The contrast of the classic academic
atmosphere of Chase's room shows Hassam pronouncedly as the most radical
impressionist we have. His interest is light, and always more light,
vibration at any cost; which contrasted with Chase's art, or for that
matter anybody's else, Duveneck's, or, for instance, even Whistler's,
becomes almost irritating in its lack of simple surfaces. He does not
eliminate in the sense of the older men, who care more for a unity of
expression than for an approximation to the actual outdoors. There is
sunlight in his work, without a doubt, but it is not always spread over
agreeable subjects. The wooden quality of his figures and the frugal
aspects of his fruit, to us Californians are particularly painful. Of
all his oils in this gallery the two on either side of the "Aphrodite"
on the east wall are by far the best. In them he succeeds in carrying
his point agreeably and convincingly. They are both lovely in colour,
and they give you the feeling of having been well studied. The two
groups of watercolours and gouaches on the side walls are, with the
exception of a wash blue sea, very discreet in quality of paint and most
intimate in feeling, and to my mind do Hassam more credit than the many
other canvases, which seem to be painted for expounding a technical
principle rather than to reveal his innermost feelings.

Gallery 77.

Gari Melchers.