About This Artwork

Childe Hassam
American, 1859-1935

The Little Pond, Appledore, 1890

Oil on canvas
40.6 x 55.8 cm (16 x 22 in.)
signed, lower right: "Childe Hassam 1890"
Through prior acquisition of the Friends of American Art and the Walter H. Schulze Memorial collections, 1986.421

Appledore Island, one of the Isles of Shoals located off the New Hampshire coast and the home of the poet Celia Thaxter, attracted numerous artists and writers to its rocky shores during the late nineteenth century. The Little Pond, Appledore dates from the artist's first summer sojourn in Appledore after his return from three years spent working in Paris, and reflects his burgeoning interest in the bright palette, broken brushwork, and dramatic light effects that distinguish Impressionist painting.

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

New Haven, Conn., Yale University Art Gallery, Childe Hassam, An Island Garden Revisited, Apr. 4-June 10, 1990, pl. 76.

Lugano-Cast Agnola, Switzerland, Fondazione Thyssen-Bornemisza, American Impressionism, July 22-Oct. 28, 1990, cat. 41.

Publication History

William H. Gerdts, American Impressionism (Abbeville Press, 1984), p. 21 (ill.).

Hirschl & Adler Galleries, The Art of Collecting (New York, 1984), p. 36, no. 24.

Master Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago (Little, Brown, and Company, 1988), p. 95 (ill.).

The Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report ,1986-1987 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1987), p. 7, pl. 10.

Marvin D. Schwartz, “The Art Institute’s New Wing,” Antiques and the Arts Weekly, Nov. 4, 1988, pp. 1, 60-62 (ill.).

Midwest Art History Society, Newsletter 15B (Fall 1988), p. 5 (ill.).

Judith A. Barter et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998).

Judith A. Barter et al, The Age of American Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2011), no. 57.

Ownership History

Lauren Drake, by 1891; Theresa Drake, Dayton, Ohio, by 1953 to 1982; Dr. Gwendolyn Boyd, New Orleans, from 1982 to 1984; Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York City, 1984; Marshall Field, Chicago, from 1984 to 1986; sold to The Art Institute of Chicago, 1986.