The California series by Childe Hassam is a series of approximately 28 works based on American Impressionist Childe Hassam's visits to Northern California at least three times, in 1904, 1908, and 1914, and Southern California at least once in 1927. The works between 1904 and 1914 feature images from the San Francisco Bay Area, while the 1927-28 works feature images from Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara.[1] Out of his approximately 4000 works, Hassam's focus on California is relatively small, with only 12 major California paintings completed between 1914 and 1919. Additional minor works in the series include approximately 16 or so etchings from 1916 to 1928. Most of the works made in 1928 were based on drawings from 1927.[2] 11 of the 12 California paintings were created in 1914 and first exhibited as part of the "California Group" of 106 paintings total in the Exhibition of Pictures by Childe Hassam at the Montross Gallery in New York in 1915.[3] A twelfth painting in the series, California, has been dated to 1919.[4] The majority of Hassam's Calfiornia etchings were first exhibited at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1927.[5]
Historically, Hassam's work as an Impressionist in San Francisco was somewhat unique. Even though the works of the French Impressionists were first popularized in California by San Francisco art galleries in the 1890s, and had their first major public exhibition at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) in 1915, just several years after New York's Armory Show,[6] artists in Northern California remained strongly attached to the style of tonalism, not Impressionism. The vast majority of artists who took up the style of California Impressionism did so in Southern California, not the north, leading to that region serving as the nexus for the short-lived legacy of regional Impressionism in the early 20th century.[7]
Several California artists found inspiration in Hassam's work and painted similar scenes in the Bay Area. In Northern California, members of the Society of Six in Oakland, California, were greatly influenced by the PPIE in 1915, which revealed works by French Impressionists, American Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, and Futurists for the first time in California. Plein-air artists Maurice Logan (1886–1977) and Selden Connor Gile (1877–1947), both members of the Society of Six, later painted works featuring hills in the Bay Area that are reminiscent of Hassam's treatment of similar landforms.[6] Art historian Will South compares Hassam to that of California Impressionist Guy Rose (1867–1925), finding that aside from their personality differences, they took similar career trajectories and even painted the same subjects in New York and California. Nevertheless, the wider art world has mostly ignored California Impressionists and other modernists. In 2002, South observed that large Impressionist exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and retrospectives of American modernism all ignored California-based artists.[8]
| Year | Image | Title | Type | Dimensions | Gallery | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1914 | Madroñes Hill[9] | Oil on canvas | Unknown | Unknown | First exhibited 1915 | ||
| 1914 | The California Hills (The Little Vineyard) | Oil on canvas | 36.5 x 44.5 in | Private collection | Stolen 2019[10] | ||
| 1914 | Spring Morning in California | Oil on canvas | Unknown | Unknown | First exhibited 1915 | ||
| 1914 | Telegraph Hill | Oil on canvas | 24 (61.3 cm) x 24 in (61.3 cm) | White House Collection[11] | Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John Dimick | ||
| 1914 | The Eucalyptus in Blossom | Oil on canvas | Unknown | Unknown | First exhibited 1915 | ||
| 1914 | The Silver Veil and the Golden Gate | Oil on canvas | 30 in (76 cm) × 32 in (81 cm) | Brauer Museum of Art | Deaccessioning in process[12] | ||
| 1914 | California Hills, In Spring | Oil on canvas | 30 × 32 in | American Academy of Arts and Letters | Hassam bequest, 1936[13] | ||
| 1914 | Hill of the Sun, San Anselmo, California | Oil on canvas | 31.5 in × 31.75 in | Oakland Museum of California | Gift of the Oakland Museum Women's Board in honor of George W. Neubert[14] | ||
| 1914 | Eucalyptus Trees–Spring (California Hills back of Tamalpais) | Oil on canvas | Unknown | Norton Museum of Art | Gift of Dr. S. Charles and Marcella Ungar Werblow 2016[15] | ||
| 1914 | San Anselmo | Oil on canvas | Unknown | Unknown | First exhibited 1915 | ||
| 1914 | Point Lobos | Oil on canvas | 28.3 in (71.9 cm) × 36.1 in (91.9 cm) | Los Angeles County Museum of Art | Mr. and Mrs. William Preston Harrison Collection[16] | ||
| 1916 | Old Chinatown, San Francisco[17] | Etching | 5 in (13.18 cm) × 4 in (12.54 cm) | National Gallery of Art | Made from a 1904 drawing Gift of Mrs. Childe Hassam[18] | ||
| 1919 | California | Oil on Canvas | 24 (61 cm) × 43 in (109.2 cm) | Private collection | Sold at auction 2017 | ||
| 1927 | Contours of Los Angeles | Etching | 6 × 10 in | Unknown | Stays at the Mayfair Hotel by March 2 First exhibited in 1927 | ||
| 1927 | Eucalyptus Trees, Coronado | Etching | 9 × 10 in | Unknown | Stays at Hotel del Coronado by March 16 First exhibited in 1927 | ||
| 1927 | Coronado Beach, California | Etching | 9 × 13 in | Unknown | First exhibited in 1927 | ||
| 1927 | Point Loma, California | Etching | 9 × 13 in | The San Diego Museum of Art | Gift of Mrs. Childe Hassam[19] | ||
| 1927 | Edward Borein in Santa Barbara | Etching | 20.3 cm (8 in) × 15.2 cm (6 in) | Santa Barbara Historical Museum | Stays at El Mirasol Hotel by March 25 First exhibited in 1927 Gift of Amy and Steve Macfarlane[20] | ||
| 1927 | The Plaza de la Guerra | Etching | 6 × 9 | Unknown | First exhibited in 1927 | ||
| 1927 | Corpus Christi from Point Loma | Etching | |||||
| 1927 | Coronado and Point Loma | Etching | Unknown | ||||
| 1927 | A California Oil Field | Etching | 8 × 13 | Unknown | First exhibited in 1927 | ||
| 1927 | Point Loma (Version A) | Etching | Unknown | ||||
| 1927 | Giants and Pygmies | Etching | 8 in (21.27 cm) × 11 in (27.94 cm) | Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center | Gift of Mrs. Childe Hassam[21] | ||
| 1928 | Point Loma (Version B) | Etching | Unknown | ||||
| 1928 | The Giant | Etching | Unknown | From a 1927 drawing | |||
| 1928 | The Redwoods | Etching | Unknown | From a 1927 drawing | |||
| 1928 | California | Etching | Unknown | From a 1927 drawing |