Mount Hood 1908

Childe Hassam made this painting of Mount Hood with oil on canvas. It’s an amazing mountain, and it feels like Hassam must have stood in front of it and painted it in one go! I can imagine him quickly and intuitively applying the paint to capture the fleeting light. See how he’s used cool blues and purples in the foreground, and then that creamy yellow for the mountain itself. The way he’s layered those colors makes the mountain feel soft and ethereal. It reminds me of other impressionist painters who were trying to capture a sense of light, atmosphere, and place. I bet that Hassam was also thinking about conveying not just what he saw, but how he felt being there. The city down below looks as though it is cast in shadow, but somehow Hassam manages to suggest the bustle of the city at the base of this giant mountain. It feels like we are experiencing a real moment in time. The process of painting is a conversation across time, and Hassam is still inspiring us today.