Flagstone Sidewalk, Portsmouth, New Hampshire 1916

Childe Hassam made this watercolor, Flagstone Sidewalk, Portsmouth, New Hampshire with a loose and lively touch. You can see the process right there on the surface. It’s the kind of picture that shows you how the world looks when you’re just kind of glancing around, and it doesn’t fuss over details. Check out the colors. There is a strong emphasis on greens and blues. The brushstrokes are feathery and quick, especially in the trees overhead. Hassam’s marks accumulate into masses of light and shade. The overall effect is a bright, summery day captured in a fleeting moment. I am drawn to the way he defined the sidewalk, the stones rendered as geometric shapes with thin outlines. It gives the painting a solid foundation, and all the looser brushwork kind of lifts off from that. Hassam seems like he might be checking in with artists like John Singer Sargent, who also loved to capture the impression of light and atmosphere. But Hassam’s got his own thing. He’s not trying to nail down reality; he’s trying to catch the feeling of it, and that’s the best thing about art, isn’t it?