International studio (57.1915/1916)

The Ambidextrous Childe Hassam

MORNING LIGHT BY CHILDE HASSAM


The ambidextrous childe
HASSAM
BY CHARLES L. BUCHANAN
In one of his droll, delicious fables,
Robert Louis Stevenson epitomizes the im-
memorial fate of the dissenting voice. The
Traveller has incautiously cast a doubt upon the
supremacy of the Citizen’s native town. We
recall the concluding sentence, “They buried the
traveller at the dusk.”
Now as regards the recent exhibition of Mr.
Childe Hassam’s pictures (by all odds, the pre-
eminent feature of the month in art),’ we find
ourselves in the uncomfortable and precarious
position of the dissenting voice. It seems to us

that there are two sides to the question, and it
seems to us that we have seen it approached from
only one side. Paradoxical as it may appear, we
are allowing ourselves this rather luke-warm
attitude because of the very invincibleness of our
belief in Mr. Hassam. In other words, if Mr.
Hassam were merely one more of the innumer-
able thousands who practise the art of painting
with the usual inconsequential results, we should
be guilty of an offence against proportion in
subjecting him to that kind of a hard and fast
scrutiny that is alone accorded the authoritative
accomplishment. But Mr. Hassam’s position is too
securea one toelicit thekindly tolerance thatcovers
a multitude of mediocrities. He is, precisely, one
of the bare half dozen or so really significant

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