Oregon Landscape 1908

Childe Hassam made 'Oregon Landscape' with what looks like oil paint, using a fairly broad brush, or maybe even a palette knife. You can tell Hassam really enjoyed the process of putting the paint on, making the kind of picture that’s more about the act of looking and recording than about rendering a photographic image. The textures, those layers of yellows, greens, and browns in the foreground, feel almost tactile, like you could reach out and touch the earth. It's not just about what the landscape looks like, but about how it feels to be in it. Look at the way the clouds are painted. See how they’re built up with small, almost staccato marks, creating a sense of depth and movement? It's like Hassam is trying to capture not just the appearance of the sky, but also the feeling of the air moving, the light changing. It makes me think of Constable, who was famously obsessed with painting clouds, and how for both of them, the landscape isn't just a scene, it's a whole world of sensory experience.