Hell wants their weather back

Magnet #1245 - Childe Hassam's Big Ben

This Childe Hassam painting of Big Ben is exactly where I'd like to be right this second.

No secret how much I love London, and London's dreary gloomy weather. And no more than right now, because I'd trade this NYC heatwave in a heartbeat for dreary gloomy London weather.

Ugh.

White cliffs of Appledore

Magnet #1071 - Childe Hassam's The South Ledges

Oh, there's the ocean again. Because you know how much I love the beach.

There's an amazing collection of American Impressionists at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in DC, and I was superexcited when I saw they chose this one for a magnet.

Despite the beach theme, I love, love, love this Childe Hassam painting of The South Ledges in Appledore, Maine. Hassam and a bunch of his creative friends all used to hang out at poet Celia Thaxter's house there during the summers, so there's more than a few Appledore paintings in Hassam's body of work.

Part of why I'm so drawn to this painting is because it's such a gorgeous color combination of blues and whites. Obviously. And always.

I'm also drawn to how the lady, presumably a well-to-do New Englander, is perched against the rocks, lost in thought. Honestly, the painting also reminds me of my favorite picture of well, me...against the world.

And, of course, the other reason I love it is because if you're just walking by the piece in a gallery, at first glance it feels like it's a Monet. Subtle differences show that it's not, and with each Hassam that I see, I'm getting better and better at telling the difference.

Or, I'm just getting better at reading the placards.

Rainy midnight

Magnet #873 - Rainy Midnight

I think I need to do a full exploratory of American Impressionists - the more I see, the more I like of their work.

This magnet and this artist is no exception. Childe Hassam's Rainy Midnight was one of my favorite pieces from the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. And you can definitely see the touch of the Impressionists in his work - even if he wasn't part of their little circle of friends, he spent the late 1880s in Paris, and even exhibited at the Salons.


Hassam painted this in 1890, freshly back from Paris. I'm fairly sure that I like it because the beautiful blue-ish purplish color palette closely matches my favorite Monet that I magnetblogged about before. I think the subject matter also makes a difference - the only thing better than a snowy night/morning in New York City is a rainy one.

And, it's about 20 years off, but this scene is totally the Age of Innocence New York, which I love, love, love.

I mean, can't you just see May peering out of the carriage, looking for Newland, cuz she just found out about the affair with Countess Olenska and she's tracking him down in the middle of the night?

Wait? That didn't happen in your version of the book movie?