The Church at Old Lyme 1924

Childe Hassam made this etching of The Church at Old Lyme, using delicate lines to capture a sense of place and light. I imagine Hassam, bent over the copper plate, carefully dragging his etching needle to create a network of lines and textures. Look closely and you can see the marks of his labour: a constellation of tiny dots, each one registering a moment of contact and pressure. The overall effect is both precise and atmospheric, capturing the architectural solidity of the church and the transient effects of light filtering through the trees. Hassam was part of the American Impressionist movement and in this print, I see him trying to define the American landscape. I wonder, what was it like to stand in front of that church, feeling the weight of history and the promise of a new day? His work reminds me that artists are always in dialogue with their surroundings, translating their experiences into a language of marks and gestures.