Frederick Childe Hassam

Childe Hassam was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He studied at the Boston Art School, was apprenticed to an engraver from whom he learned the techniques of engraving, and then began his career as an illustrator. He went to Paris, in 1883, and studied with two academic artists, Louis Boulanger and Jules Joseph Lefebvre. During this period the American John Henry Twatchman was a fellow student. These years in Paris, occurring as they did when Impressionism had reached its peak of influence, were important to Hassam. When he returned to America he began to paint in the Impressionistic style and in 1898 he joined with Twachtman,  J. Alden Weir, and seven other American artists to form a group called "The Ten." During the last twenty years of his life, Hassam created over 380 etchings and 45 lithographs. His images, whether interior or exterior, are complex studies of light.