Landscape at Newfields, New Hampshire 1909

Childe Hassam painted this oil on canvas with a flurry of marks, like he was trying to catch a feeling more than a view. Look at the water—it’s a mosaic of blues and yellows, each dab a little vibration. You can almost feel the breeze and the way light flickers on the surface. Up above, those puffy clouds seem to bounce right off the canvas; Hassam really gets the weight of them with thick impasto strokes, doesn't he? There's a sense of immediacy in the way the scene is rendered. It's as though Hassam wanted to get it all down before it disappeared. Think about Pissarro, and the way he captured the feeling of a place, rather than a photorealistic likeness. There's a certain freedom that comes from knowing you can’t capture everything, and maybe that's the real subject here.