Canterbury Cathedral (recto) America, 19th century

Canterbury Cathedral (recto)

1889

Childe Hassam

(American, 1859–1935)

America, 19th century

watercolor with gouache and graphite

Support: Beige(1) wove paper

Watermarks:

Sheet: 18.7 x 13.9 cm (7 3/8 x 5 1/2 in.)

Bequest of Mrs. Henry A. Everett for the Dorothy Burnham Everett Memorial Collection 1938.65.a

Location: not on view

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Description

Late in 1886, Hassam and his wife departed his native Boston for France, spending the next three years abroad. His work of this period reflected his burgeoning interest in French Impressionism; he increasingly used broken brushstrokes and a lighter palette. Rather than being labeled an American Impressionist, however, Hassam preferred to identify himself as a painter of "light and air." An early morning rosy sky illuminates this distant view of Canterbury Cathedral, one of several watercolors of the English city.