Pomona 1900

Childe Hassam made this painting of Pomona, a Roman goddess of fruit and abundance, using oil on canvas. Look closely, and you'll see how he's built the image from countless small touches of paint, a technique called "broken color" that became popular in Impressionism. Hassam isn't just painting a picture, he is constructing a surface, bit by bit. This approach to painting, common in Impressionism, can be compared to craft techniques. Think of mosaic, for example, or petit point needlework. Each of these are additive processes, with an emphasis on facture: the evidence of handwork. Impressionist painters were drawn to these kinds of material effects, in part because industrialization was making older handcrafts obsolete. So, while this painting may seem classical in its subject, it shows how the very act of slowly building an image can take on a social meaning. Hassam brings painting closer to the world of ordinary labor.