Hassam-Artist

Rainy Day, Columbus Avenue, Boston, Childe Hassam, 1885

Frederick Childe Hassam was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1859, died in East Hampton, New York in 1935. Rainy Day is an impressionist gem, Rainy Night of the same year not so much. His later work is little short of vandalism. A connoisseur of means could have assured his place in art history by putting Hassam to work illustrating boiler inspection manuals around 1910, say. But ol' Childe gets a pass here at Woodpile Report, and he would even if this were the only stunner he ever painted, which it ain't.