The Little Pond, Appledore

Childe Hassam · 1890

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

40.6 × 55.8 cm (16 × 22 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Impressionism

*The Little Pond, Appledore* captures the still, luminous quality of a garden pool on one of the rocky Isles of Shoals off the New England coast, painted with the loose, sun-drenched brushwork that made Childe Hassam one of the most distinctive voices in American Impressionism. Hassam spent many summers on Appledore Island throughout the late nineteenth century, drawn by its extraordinary coastal light and the company of poet and gardener Celia Thaxter, whose beloved cottage garden became one of his most productively returned-to subjects. His technique here — short, layered strokes that build form through colour and shifting light rather than hard outline — reflects the direct influence of his years of study in Paris during the mid-1880s, lending the scene a naturalness and warmth that rewards careful looking. Hassam produced over two hundred paintings on Appledore alone, making his long relationship with the island one of the most extensively documented in American art history. This hand-painted oil reproduction is made by skilled artists working directly from the original held at the Art Institute of Chicago, preserving the tonal depth and textural richness that only paint on canvas can carry.