Geraniums

Artist Childe Hassam American, 1859 - 1935

Date1888 - 1889

Place of BirthBoston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Place of OriginParis, France

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsStretcher: 18 1/4 × 12 15/16 in. (46.4 × 32.9 cm)
Frame Dimensions: 24 1/2 x 19 1/4 x 2 1/2 in. (62.2 x 48.9 x 6.4 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineBequest of Charlotte Pruyn Hyde

Object number1971.22

On View

On view

Collections

American Paintings & Sculpture

SignedLower left: "Childe Hassam 1888" Signed in monogram and dated on the back in red paint; "CH 1889" (after the addition of more flowers?)

MarkingsTop stretcher, black stencil: "G619", in pencil: "GERANIUMS (88)". Central stretcher, stenciled stamp: "F 4033". Paper label: "Porch of a French country house and gardens - north of at Villiers -le-Bel, and near Paris". Stenciled dealer label in an oval: "Paul Foinet (Van Eyck)/ 54 Rue N.D. des Champs/Toiles & Coleurs Fines". Stamped on verso "1889/Salon". There is an 8x10 black and white print of the reverse side of canvas in the research file. Second copy, before treatment, in the conservation file.

DescriptionChilde Hassam paints a brilliantly sunny scene of a garden patio. Watering cans define the foreground while behind them multiple pots of red geraniums create a screen-like effect, partially covering a woman in white silhouetted against a dark doorway. Engrossed in her activity—she appears to be sewing or perhaps reading—she seems unaware of the viewers’ presence. We see why Hassam was called an American Impressionist, given his loose brushstrokes and focus on the handling of light and shadows, all appearing in a simple, everyday scene. Although while living in Paris for three years, beginning in 1886, he studied with academically trained artists, he was also exposed to the art of Renoir and other Impressionists and to en plein air (outdoors) painting, before returning to the United States and settling in New York City.

Inscriptions on the back of the canvas record “Geraniums” was painted in Villiers-le-Bel, a suburb north of Paris, at the country home of Hassam’s friends, whom we know to be the Blumenthals. Hassam and his wife, Kathleen Maude Doane—probably the woman depicted in this painting—spent several summers with them there.

Text by Penny Howell Jolly, Professor Emerita of Art History, Skidmore College, July 2026Exhibition HistoryExposition Universelle, Paris, 1889.

"American Impressionism," The Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, Jan. 3 - March 2, 1980; Frederick S. Wright Art Gallery, University of California at Los Angeles, March 9 - May 4, 1980; Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, IL, May 16 - June 22, 1980; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, July 1 - Aug. 31, 1980.

"Down Garden Paths; The Floral Environment in American Art," Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ, Oct. 1 - Nov. 30, 1983; Terra Museum of American Art, Dec. 13, 1983 - Feb. 12, 1984; Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, March 1 - May 27, 1984.

"Childe Hassam: American Impressionist," Jordan-Volpe Gallery, New York, 1994.

"Family Matters: American Impressionism and Realism," The Hyde Collection, April 27 - July 27, 2003.

"Childe Hassam, American Impressionist," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 9 - September 12, 2004.

"Americans in Paris: 1860-1900," National Gallery of London, February 22 - May 21, 2006; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, June 25 - September 24, 2006; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October 16, 2006 - January 28, 2007.

"Impressionist Gardens," National Galleries of Scotland, July 31 - October 17, 2010; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza (exhibited at Fundación Caja Madrid), November 16 - February 13, 2011.

"American Artists in Europe", Whitney-Renz Gallery, The Hyde Collection, February 28 - June 11, 2017Provenanceby 1930, New York, NY, E. & A. Milch Company, Inc. (dealer)
1930, Glens Falls, NY, Mr. and Mrs. Louis F. Hyde
1963, Glens Falls, NY, The Hyde Collection Trust (Bequest of Charlotte P. Hyde)