Summer at Cos Cob 1902

Childe Hassam layered pastel on paper to make this sun-drenched view. I can see the artist making marks and adjusting the composition, shifting, and emerging with intuition. I like to imagine Hassam outside in the grass, squinting in the sun, translating light and shadow with these colors. The paint is soft and powdery, a dry medium perfectly suited to summer heat. Look how the strokes of light capture the vines and leaves climbing the porch. The marks are short and sweet, evoking the feeling of light filtering through the trees. I feel for Hassam here, grappling with the ever-changing conditions of light and shadow, trying to nail it, knowing he can’t. He probably knew paintings are never really finished, only abandoned! What a pleasure it is to witness his engagement and process. It reminds me of what Bonnard said, that art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.