The Writing Desk
Childe Hassam, American, 1859 - 1935
1915
Etching on laid paper
Plate: 9 13/16 × 7 1/16 in. (25 × 18 cm)
Sheet: 12 3/8 × 9 7/16 in. (31.5 × 24 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Mrs. Hersey Egginton in memory of her son, Everett Egginton, Class of 1921
PR.954.20.273
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Research Area
Not on view
Inscriptions
Signed, upper right in the plate: CH 1912; signed lower right on the margin in graphite: trademark, imp.; lower left on the margin in graphite: The Writing Desk
Label
In this etching, Childe Hassam portrays his wife, Kathleen, seated at an open writing desk encircled by flowers and plants. With her right hand resting on her shoulder, Kathleen flips through papers, signaling the important role she played in running the household that supported her husband’s artistic career. The flowers and plotted plants suggest the intimate space they shared at Holley House, a boarding house that became the center of the Cos Cob artist colony in Connecticut at the turn of the 20th century. Here, the Hassams and other American impressionists worked alongside and supported one another while often creating works incorporating floral motifs inspired by the surrounding landscape.
From the 2024 exhibition Beyond the Bouquet: Arranging Flowers in American Art, curated by Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art
Provenance
Collected by Hersey Egginton (1875-1951); bequeathed to his wife, Mary E. (Benner) Egginton (1875-1962), Garden City, New York, 1951; given to present collection, 1954.
Catalogue Raisonne
P. Eliasoph, Handbook of the Complete Set of Etchings and Drypoints with 25 Illustrations of Childe Hassam, N.A. of the American Academy of Fine Arts and Letters, New York: The Leonard Clayton Gallery, Inc., 1933, p. 20, no. 54. R. Cortissoz, Catalogue
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