Mount Hood,Oregon 1904

Childe Hassam painted this Mount Hood, Oregon, using watercolor, and graphite on paper. The first thing that grabs me is how immediate and process-oriented this feels – like Hassam was really there, responding to the landscape. Look at the way the paper's surface peeks through – it’s almost like the mountain and trees are emerging from the ground itself. The paint is so thin it's transparent, and the graphite lines add this lovely, almost nervous energy. I love the way the trees are rendered. They’re not trying to be perfect trees; they’re just these quick, gestural marks that somehow capture the essence of a forest. This reminds me a little of Cézanne's watercolors, the way he would build up forms with these delicate washes of color. It’s like Hassam is having a conversation with the mountain, trying to understand its form and its feeling, one brushstroke at a time. Art, like a mountain, can reveal its form to you with time.