Tanagra 1918

Childe Hassam made this painting, Tanagra, with oil on canvas. Just imagine him, in his studio, squinting at the scene before him, dabbing paint with short strokes, layering those muted colors - cream, ochre, and hints of green. I can feel the artist’s presence here; the way he captures the light filtering through the curtains, the stillness of the figure holding a Tanagra figurine – it all feels so personal. I bet he was thinking a lot about the relationship between past and present, art and life. The brushstrokes are loose but deliberate, and the surface has this gorgeous, tactile quality. Look at the way he renders the floral pattern on the screen, it’s almost like a dance of color and light. Hassam was part of a whole generation wrestling with these questions, and you can see echoes of artists like Monet in his work. What a conversation! I always come back to this sense of exchange, how artists keep talking to each other across time, inspiring new ways of seeing and feeling.