Twenty-Six of June, Old Lyme 1912

Childe Hassam made this painting sometime around 1905 in Old Lyme, probably with oil on canvas. I see a woman in a blue kimono standing in front of a mirror, and my first thought is that this is a very interior kind of painting, one where the inside space reflects an internal state. Hassam uses these tiny, almost imperceptible brushstrokes, like a pointillist Seurat, but they blend together to create a cohesive whole, like a mosaic. Imagine standing in front of the canvas applying all those tiny marks. The lilac flowers in the vase, the woman's robe, the muted yellow outside the window—they're all rendered with the same careful attention, giving the scene a feeling of balance and harmony. But I get the sense that Hassam is inviting us to consider what's going on beneath the surface. It makes me think about what other painters were doing at the time, like Bonnard and Vuillard, with their intimate domestic scenes and subtle psychological undertones. I think art is just artists communicating with each other like that.