From Publishers Weekly
Hassam's 50-year career is dutifully presented in this expansive catalogue. Direct influences on American Impressionist Hassam (1859–1935) include Dutch and British masters (Hassam disavowed Monet's influence, though Hassam "liberated his brushwork" in Paris), influences that mirror the painter's unfailing enthusiasm for his native country and its (and his) Anglo-Saxon forebears. Included among the 374 illustrations (244 in full color) are depictions of the urban environments Hassam cherished (Boston, New York City and Paris) as well as rose-colored, elegant views of the more rugged East Hampton and Maine. "It has been my life-long aim to retain the natural beauty and dignity of any fine old American community," Hassam wrote. His greatest achievement remains his mighty (and now iconic) flag series, and depictions of Fifth Avenue in its festooned post-WWI patriotism. The collection also includes an essay on Hassam's framing and marketing techniques, his ventures into other mediums, a checklist of works included in the exhibition and a chronology of his life, all of which contribute to a further contextualization, scholarly and popular, of this American Impressionist. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Hassam (1859-1935) was the most zestful of the American impressionists, and Weinberg, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, along with her expert contributors, covers every facet of Hassam's life and work in this substantial, gorgeously illustrated volume. Although Hassam relished the fact that his name sounded Arabian, he was solidly Anglo-Saxon, and although he studied in Paris and traveled in Europe, as every serious painter of his generation did, he was all-American and deliberately painted upbeat scenes of the cushy lives of the privileged and fashionable. So lovely and vital are the watercolors, oils, and etchings created by this purveyor of "cheerful elitism and escapism," the astonishingly prolific Hassam became resoundingly successful, although he did develop a drinking problem and a vehement hatred of modern art. But there is no evidence of these dark forces in his shimmering paintings of Boston boulevards, the chic New York neighborhoods favored by Edith Wharton, and idyllic New England as Hassam's broad brushstrokes, "dramatic perspective," and vibrant colors cohere into works of unabashedly lush and timeless beauty. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
Childe Hassam (1859--1935) created an immense body of work in the Impressionist style, comprising oil paintings, watercolors, pastels, and prints. His distinctive and enchanting images, with their focus on effects of color and light, are widely admired and are included in the collections of every major museum in the United States. In this handsomely illustrated book, the authors, all experts in the field, take a fresh look at Hassam's responses to his vibrant and complicated era. Their texts study his striking portrayals of cities and country sites in America and Europe. Also explored are his late works-those completed after 1900-when Hassam felt increasingly challenged by both modern life and modern art. These include tranquil interior vignettes, iconic images of New England churches, and his great Flag series. Hassam's life and career in Boston, New York, Paris, New England, and East Hampton as well as his travels are covered in fresh and insightful chapters. Essays on more specific subjects focus on Hassam's pride in his ancestry; his interest in architecture, gardens and allegorical themes; his accomplishments as a watercolorist and printmaker; his frames; the marketing of his art; and the contemporary critical response to it. The book, which also contains a chronology of Hassam's career and a comprehensive exhibition chronology, accompanies the first major museum retrospective of Hassam's works since 1972. Childe Hassam, American Impressionist examines this great artist's work in the context of his credo that "the man who will go down to posterity is the man who paints his own time and the scenes of every-day life around him."

From the Publisher
This book is the catalogue for an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (June 7 to September 12, 2004). Published in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

About the Author
H. Barbara Weinberg is the Alice Pratt Brown Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

""I believe the man who will go down to posterity is the man who paints his own time and the scenes of every-day life around him," declared Childe Hassam in 1892. It was as a pioneer of American Impressionism and perhaps its most prolific and successful practitioner that Hassam (1859-1935) realized this credo. In so doing, he provided an account of our national life during a dynamic period. At the same time he helped to create a wave of enthusiasm for American Impressionism that he rode to fame and fortune." "Today he is best known for his portrayals of Celia Thaxter's old-fashioned garden on Appledore Island, Maine, and his depictions of the flags, banners, and bunting displayed on New York's tall buildings in patriotic response to World War I." This illustrated publication accompanies a major exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, the first retrospective presentation of Hassam's work in a museum since 1972. Unique to this volume are an account of Hassam's lifelong campaign to market his art, a study of the frames he selected and designed for his paintings, and an unprecedented lifetime exhibition record. Included in addition are a checklist of works in the exhibition and a chronology of Hassam's life. All works in the exhibition as well as comparative materials are reproduced.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly