Moonlight on the Sound 1906

Childe Hassam made this painting, "Moonlight on the Sound," with oil on canvas. Look at the way he’s scrubbed the paint into the canvas, it's pretty thin and almost like a stain in places. You can see the weave of the canvas underneath. It's interesting to think of artmaking as a process, you know, a journey where the destination isn't always clear. I'm drawn to the color here, all blues and greens. The way the moonlight hits the water, creating this shimmering effect. If you look closely at the mark-making, you can see that Hassam used short, broken strokes. Notice how the paint seems to hover on the surface, catching the light in a way that's almost luminous. Hassam had clearly looked at Monet, but there is a directness to his handling of paint that makes me think of someone like Marsden Hartley, who was drawn to elemental landscapes. Ultimately, the real beauty of this painting is its ambiguity and the sense of tranquility it evokes.