The "Home Sweet Home" Cottage, Easthampton 1921

Childe Hassam created this print of the "Home Sweet Home" Cottage in Easthampton, using etching. Look at how Hassam uses marks to build form. A tight network of lines coalesce to become tree trunks, leaves, and the walls of the house. What appears at first to be a straightforward depiction of a cottage gradually dissolves into a dynamic field of marks. The roof is a thick layer of lines, laid down in different directions, almost like strokes of paint. This reminds me of Cezanne. The way he built up his forms from hatched lines. Both artists embraced the physicality of their mediums. Whether etching or painting, each mark is a visible record of the artist’s process. Hassam almost flattens the space, pulling the background forward to create an all-over composition. What makes a home? A building? Or is it the accumulation of memories and experiences we layer onto it? It's not always so sweet, but that's life.