Saturday, August 6, 2016

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2004. We visited a local pond near Peter's parents home. With us we brought a loaf of bread to share with the geese. I wasn't sure what I was looking at first..... the geese or Mattie. Since Mattie had no idea how to swim, I always kept a close eye on him in case he decided to enter the water.


Quote of the day: Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing. ~ Albert Schweitzer

We visited the Peabody Essex Museum today in Peabody, MA, to see the Childe Hassam exhibit! I love impressionists, and though I knew of Hassam, I had no idea of his extensive work off the coast of Maine. 

In a way this exhibit was like taking a walk back through time. I had the opportunity to chat with a docent today, who told me of her recent visit to Appledore. The island in which many of Hassam's paintings were created. She told me that Appledore remains UNTOUCHED. Like the land that time forgot. The island now houses several research facilities on it that study not only marine and ecological concerns, but cultural and artistic ones.

Six miles off the coasts of southern New Hampshire and Maine, Appledore is the largest island in a storied archipelago in the Atlantic known as the Isles of Shoals. Over the millennia, exposure to waves, wind, sun and ice has severely weathered the island, a process that is ongoing and relentless. When Hassam stepped off the ferry onto the rocks of Appledore Island, he found a contained and nuanced place that would occupy his imagination for three decades. Hassam began regularly visiting Appledore in 1886, a time when art critics had already cited him as the earliest American champion of the Impressionist movement and considered him one of the most talented painters of his generation.

Comfortably ensconced in a rambling resort, waking to bright sun and Atlantic breezes, the artist gave himself over to painting en plein air. Hassam created a body of work that remains a pinnacle of American impressionism. This is the first exhibition in more than 25 years to focus on Hassam's paintings of the Isles of Shoals, a group of small, rocky islands lying in the Gulf of Maine six miles off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The exhibition features more than 40 oil paintings and watercolors dating from the late 1880's to 1912.

The initial interest for Hassam was the exquisite garden of poet and painter and local celebrity Celia Thaxter. Appledore's greatest champion, Thaxter published An Island Garden in 1894 with illustrations by Hassam. Over four summers, Hassam painted Thaxter's garden (as you see here with the poppies) and the views from her cottage piazza. Her flourishing cultivated plot scarcely bound by its 15-by-50-foot wooden fence and overlooking Babb's Rock provided the staging for the painter's first in-depth exploration of Appledore's scenery. 

Beginning in 1848, vacationers began flocking to Appledore's grand hotel to escape the hassles of modern life. The island also boasted gabled cottages, a cobble beach with rowboats and daysailers, a saltwater bathing pool with cabanas, and tennis courts. At the height of the season, the dining hall of The Appledore House would host upward of 300 well-heeled guests. They would stroll the circuit road, survey the geological marvels and watch the Atlantic's waves crash against the shores. On the west side, they would swim the sheltered coves and play tennis on the nearby courts. At the end of a leisurely day, many would head to the hotel's wonderfully wide porch to take in a sunset. Although Hassam enjoyed the island society on his working vacations, he never painted its throngs. Instead he crafted and created more pure, unpeopled landscapes on Appledore than anywhere else.

Hassam has been quoted as saying, "I spent some of my pleasantest summers...(and) where I met the best people in the country." Hassam's subjects for his paintings included Thaxter's flower garden, the rocky landscape, and some interior scenes rendered with his most impressionistic brush strokes to date. In Impressionist fashion, he applied his colors "perfectly clear out of the tube" to unprimed canvas without pre-mixing. Artists displayed their work in Thaxter's salon and were exposed to wealthy buyers staying on the island.

On a treeless island, painting could not have been all pleasure. One has only to stand on the exposed rocks where Hassam painted to marvel at the artist's fortitude. The midsummer sun would have left the painter scorched, even if shaded by an umbrella. Gusty salt breezes would have played havoc with a stretched canvas. When the breeze stills, insects would rise from the tidal pools. Though Hassam found a few good sites along the road that circled the island, he mostly looked off-road, scrambling up rocks and boulders.

On our way home, we stopped at Treadwell's Ice Cream. This shop has been serving ice cream since 1946. The ice cream was wonderful and it was amazing to me so see how many people stopped here and seemed like regulars. Not something we really see in DC. Nothing seems to stay around long enough!