The South Ledges, Appledore

Childe Hassam, The South Ledges, Appledore, 1913, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.62
Childe Hassam, The South Ledges, Appledore, 1913, oil on canvas, 34 1436 18 in. (87.091.6 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.62
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Artwork Details

Title
The South Ledges, Appledore
Date
1913
Dimensions
34 1436 18 in. (87.091.6 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of John Gellatly
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Highlights
Subjects
  • Dress — accessory — hat
  • Figure female — full length
  • Landscape — coast
  • Landscape — Maine — Appledore Island
  • Landscape — island — Appledore Island
Object Number
1929.6.62

Artwork Description

Hassam spent many summers on Appledore Island off the coast of Maine. Every year, he and a circle of musicians, writers and other artists made an informal colony based at the home of his friend, the poet Celia Thaxter. In Thaxter's gardens and on the rocky beaches, Hassam used the flickering brushwork and brilliant colors he had adopted in France to capture the spangled light of Appledore's brief summer. This painting evokes the leisurely, seasonal rhythms of America's priveleged families in the last years before the Great War. A beautifully dressed woman shields her face from the sun; she looks down and away, as if absorbed in the song of a sandpiper, the island bird that inspired Celia Thaxter's most famous children's poem.

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006

Works by this artist (1 item)

J. Bond Francisco, The Sick Child, 1893, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum Purchase, 1991.9
The Sick Child
Date1893
oil on canvas
On view

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