Spring, Navesink Highlands 1908

Childe Hassam made this landscape painting with oils, probably en plein air, and I imagine him squinting in the sun as he worked. There’s something so tender about the way the trees are rendered—these gentle stabs of yellow and green, like spring is just barely hanging on, like the painting came into being through trial, error, and intuition. I feel for Hassam, trying to capture this moment, the light just so, a little brushstroke here, a little stroke there. See the way he has built up the surface of the painting to describe the foliage and reflections in the water; you can almost feel the sun-drenched stillness. It's not a photorealistic rendering but a symphony of color and light, communicating feeling, intention, or meaning. Hassam and the Impressionists are a reminder that artists are always in conversation, inspiring one another’s creativity across time. Each painting is an embodied expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.