New York Winter Window 1919

Childe Hassam laid down small strokes of muted color to make this painting of a woman by a window in New York. You can see he’s built up the painting through countless dabs of paint; the walls, her dress, even the light outside the window seem to shimmer, as though they are made of mosaic. I wonder what it was like for Hassam, standing in the cold, trying to capture the light as it hit the glass. Each brushstroke feels like a little meditation. And look at the woman, gazing out. Is she longing for something? Dreaming of spring? Her pose reminds me of Hopper, but there’s something about the soft focus that feels much more intimate, like a memory half-forgotten. The more I look, the more I appreciate how Hassam balances the abstract and the real; it’s a conversation between what he sees and what he feels, made visible through paint.