The summer of Hassam.(Current and Coming)

Were he alive to enjoy it, the brilliant painter and astute marketer Childe Hassam would be basking in the glory of a triumvirate of special exhibitions of his art organized at various institutions in Connecticut to complement the enormous retrospective currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. (See pp. 86-95 of this issue.) These four shows provide what is certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to appreciate the astonishing depth and variety of Hassam's considerable oeuvre, much of which is privately owned and has not been on public view in years.

An outgrowth of the art world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was the emergence of many informally organized art colonies, which sprang up around the country in remote locations, such as the islands off Maine and in towns that were a short train ride from Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia. Hassam visited several such colonies during his long and prolific career, staying at some only fleetingly while remaining at others for longer periods.

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One of the first of these art colonies was founded at Cos Cob, a part of Greenwich, Connecticut, an easy train ride from New York City. Theodore Robinson, John Henry Twachtman, and Julian Alden Weir were among the talented artists who lived or summered in or near Cos Cob. In 1894 Hassam made his first trip there to visit Twachtman, and he returned frequently until about 1918. As was the case at other art colonies, Cos Cob's artistic life centered around a boardinghouse, in this case Holley House (now called the Bush-Holley Historic Site), where Twachtman reigned as the leading art instructor. Not far away Brush House, another boardinghouse, often took up the overflow of visiting artists and doubled as a subject for the painter's brush. When Hassam was in residence he was particularly drawn to the colonial architecture and other old buildings in various states of repair that surrounded the colony.

The Bush-Holley House in Cos Cob, now a property of the Historical Society of the Town of Green-wich, is the site of one of the three Hassam exhibitions. The show there is entitled Childe Hassam: Impressions of Cos Cob and remains on view through September 5. Susan G. Larkin, the guest curator, has selected a number of Hassam's oils, pastels, and watercolors in addition to etchings. He began to make etchings in 1915, during one of his last visits to the colony, having dabbled in the technique earlier in his career when it enjoyed a widespread revival. He was unsatisfied with the results until, in Cos Cob, he met Kerr Eby, who had mastered the technical aspects of etching and from whom he learned a great deal one summer. Hassam then returned to some of his earlier etching ...