1901
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Bailey's Beach, Newport, R.I. is a 1901 oil by Childe Hassam, a American Impressionism work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a bright, breezy beach scene: white sand, blue water, and people in old-fashioned swimsuits strolling along a distant boardwalk. Hassam painted this spot in Newport, Rhode Island, where the rich once vacationed. The dunes and the way the figures are pushed far back make it feel like you’re peeking in from the outside—like you don’t quite belong. If you like this, look up *impasto*—the thick, textured brushstrokes that make the sunlight feel real.
Childe Hassam, like other American Impressionists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, recorded scenes of leisure and recreation, especially country vacation retreats. This painting portrays fashionable Bailey’s Beach in Newport, Rhode Island, an exclusive seaside town known at the time for its wealth and luxury. Hassam depicted sand dunes rising from behind the beach with the promenade and its costumed bathers at a distance, reinforcing the fact that he, and the viewer, are excluded from this privileged setting. The artist’s Impressionist strategies—including the use of scintillating…
The artist, 1901. Macbeth Galleries, New York, by 1917. Sold to Duncan Phillips (1886–1966), Washington, DC, 1917. Sold to Knoedler Gallery, New York, February 18, 1929. To Milch Galleries, New York, by 1933. Sold to Paul Schulze, Chicago, 1936; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1936.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress , June 1–Oct. 31, 1934, cat. 449. San Francisco, De Young Memorial Art Museum, Exhibtition of American Painting , June 7–July 7, 1935, cat. Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Survey of American Painting , Oct. 24–Dec. 15, 1940, cat. 180. WI, Milwaukee–Downer College, A Century of Landscape Painting by American Artists , 1851–1951, Feb. 13 – Mar. 23, 1951, cat. 10. (only checklist on back of symposium brochure, The Arts in Society, Milwaukee–Downer College Feb. 13, 1951). Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, Sports and Recreation Panorama , Apr. 4–May…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Frederick Childe Hassam was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes.
See the richer artist page
