“In paintings, drawings, and etchings of New England’s picturesque villages and rugged coast, Hassam celebrated his Yankee heritage and promoted the conviction that the region embodied immutable American values. Here, he portrayed the Universalist meetinghouse in Gloucester, Massachusetts, framed by an avenue of American elms. The church, dedicated in 1806, housed a congregation associated with the establishment of religious freedom and was renowned for its bell, cast at Paul Revere’s foundry. Created at the same time as some of the canvases in the artist’s Flag series, the painting is similarly infused with a patriotic spirit.”

TheMet

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Details of Painting

• Artist:  Childe Hassam (1859–1935)
• Nationality: American, Dorchester, Massachusetts 1859–1935 East Hampton, New York)
• Date: 1918
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Credit Line: Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1925
• More About This Painting:  https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/25.206/

 

A Comparison: Lithograph of Colonial Church, Gloucester (1918)

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Details of Church Lithograph

• Title: Colonial Church, Gloucester
• Creator: Childe Hassam
• Date Created: 1918
• External Link:  NGA collection, please visit http://www.nga.gov/
• Medium: lithograph
• Object Credit: Gift of Addie Burr Clark

For More Information

• American Impressionism
• Childe Hassam: American Impressionist
• “A Bicentennial Treasury: American Masterpieces from the Metropolitan”: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 33, no. 4 (Winter, 1975–1976)
• American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 3, A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1846 and 1864
• American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885–1915

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