Brelevenez, Lannion, Cote du Nord, France 1910

Childe Hassam made this piece, Brelevenez, Lannion, Cote du Nord, France, with what looks like pastel or chalk on paper. The marks are quick, the colors muted, yet it shimmers. It looks like the work of someone really *looking* at the thing in front of them, but also kind of riffing on it, like visual jazz. The texture is built from these short, flickering strokes, especially in the building's facade. See how the ochre shifts to violet, a dash of green, suggesting the time-worn surface of the stone? It's not just a depiction, it's an interpretation. Hassam gets across the feeling of this building with a great economy of means. I love the way the blue of the sky hits the ochre, these brief, shimmering juxtapositions, like tiny jolts of feeling. Hassam’s work reminds me of Vuillard, that lovely dance between observation and abstraction, and that sense that painting isn't about answers, but about conversations, about seeing, thinking, and feeling, all at once.