Childe Hassam (1859-1935)
Along the Shore
1922
Etching
4 3/4 x 7″ (12 x 18 cm)
Wetmore Print Collection, Connecticut College
FW-0963

Childe Hassam had deep American roots yet was plagued with anxiety about his surname and facial features, which suggested Arabic origins. In order to define his American identity, Hassam illustrated idealized images of the nostalgic and historic New England landscape.  In Along the Shore, he depicts a young girl on a picturesque beach in East Hampton, New York, where he resided at the end of his career. Although Hassam borrowed the signature sketchy strokes of the Impressionist style, his subject suggests a timelessness and permanence that rejects modernity.