Wild Swans Sacred to Apollo 1921

Childe Hassam made *Wild Swans Sacred to Apollo*, and it feels like he was really enjoying himself. It's all thin washes of browns, blues, and tans, and dabs of ochre, kind of scrubbed into the surface, like he was on a picnic and decided to paint with whatever was lying around. I bet Hassam was thinking about earlier painting, maybe even Greek art. Those skinny figures, are they dancing, posing, bathing? The way they're just brushed in, so simple, makes me feel like he wasn't trying to be realistic, just trying to get at something more like a feeling, a mood. He was interested in the materiality of paint and the flatness of the surface. There’s something light and airy about it all, like a memory or a dream. And that title! *Wild Swans Sacred to Apollo*—it adds a layer of myth and mystery that makes you want to know more, but also lets you just enjoy the picture for what it is. Painting's like that, a conversation with the past, but always in the present.