23. Childe Hassam
(1859-1935)
Madonna of the North End

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Hassam, Madonna of the North End

Madonna of the North End

Etching, 1916, 164 x 116 mm., Cortissoz 100. Fine impression, with variably-wiped plate tone, on old wove paper with large margins, signed in pencil with the cipher and with tack holes for drying at the edges; a number of neatly mended small tears and thin spots just outside the plate mark, the image and signature untouched. The scene is in a poor neighborhood of Boston. The image is one of Hassam’s most poetic and also most Whistlerian in its face-on view, assortment of framing devices, flickering impressionist shading and play of light. And yet, there is clearly a different personality expressed here, an influence of the other master rather than an attempt at imitation. Hassam was not the most consistent of artists, but at his best – and here he is at or near his best – he was among the best American print makers of his time, one of the highlights of the American Etching Revival. This is today one of the rarer Hassam prints; only two impressions of it have appeared at public sale in twenty years, the last one having sold at a higher price than asked here.

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