Product Description

A major book on a major American impressionist.

From the late 1880s to around 1915, Childe Hassam, America's foremost impressionist, frequently visited the Isles of Shoals, the site of a summer resort popular with many American artists and writers. Paintings from Hassam's Isles of Shoals series are among the most familiar icons of late nineteenth-century American art. But until now, a comprehensive selection of these beautiful works had not been collected in one place. David Park Curry's informative text provides the background essential to a full appreciation of these works. 105 full-color reproductions and100 black-and-white photographs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #868023 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

From Library Journal
In 1894, writer Celia Thaxter published An Island Garden describing her rambling cottage garden at Appledore, on the rocky Isles of Shoals, ten miles off the New Hampshire coast. American Impressionist Childe Hassam (1859-1935) illustrated her book. As a frequent visitor to the Shoals, Hassam created a series of oils, watercolors, and pastels capturing their idyllic serenity. For the first time, Curry has assembled an exhibition of many of the Shoals paintings and has written this catalog to "record not only the beauty of a poet's garden in its glory, but also the flowering of a young artist's dreams." The text provides welcome material where little exists, and the brilliant color plates evoke Hassam's aesthetic philosophy. Recommended for all American art collections.
- Joan Levin, Indian Trails P.L., Wheeling, Ill.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
David Park Curry is a distinguished curator and scholar of American art. He is the senior curator of decorative arts, American painting, and sculpture at the Baltimore Museum of Art. In addition, Curry has served as curator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Denver Art Museum, and the Freer Gallery of Art.

Customer Reviews

Better than the original.....
Somewhere in one of my many boxes of books I have a copy of a reprint of the original book by Celia Thaxter, "An Island Garden". I have written a review about this book for Amazon elsewhere, and said it wasn't very good (it isn't) and received many negative votes. My major complaint about the "other" book is that you cannot see the brush strokes in the paintings. The book obviously appeals to those who care not a whit about brush strokes.

Fans of Child Hassam--this is the book you want. No, it isn't the cute little book by Thaxter. The reproductions of Childe Hassam's paintings of Celia Thaxter's island in CHILD HASSAM: AN ISLAND GARDEN REVISITED are 100 times better--and you can see the brush strokes. I can't give this book five stars, because I collect art books know the reproductions could have been better. However, the reproductions in this book are head and shoulders above those in Thaxter's book. Not only that, David Curry has included much text about life on Thaxer's island and in her famous parlor.

If you are a fan of the American Impressionist Childe Hassam, you will appreciate knowing something about the artist, his work, his friends, and his relationship with Ms. Thaxter. Most of all, you will be able to see what he painted and get an idea of where you might locate some of the originals. They are still hanging in various places such as the Walter's Gallery in Baltimore and other esoteric locations.