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CHILDE HASSAM AS A CHILD
Frederick Childe Hassam was born in Dorchester (Boston), Massachusetts on October 17, 1859. Hassam left high school without graduating and ended up working for a wood engraver. He attended drawing classes at the Lowell Institute, a division of MIT, and was a member of the Boston Art Club. He began his artistic career as an illustrator and watercolorist. By 1882 Hassam was exhibiting publicly and had his first solo exhibition, of watercolors, at the Williams and Everett Gallery in Boston. The following year he was convinced by his friend Celia Thaxter to drop his first name and thereafter was known as simply "Childe Hassam."
CHILDE HASSAM AS AN ARTIST
Having had little formal art training previously, Hassam went to Paris in 1886 to study figure drawing and painting at the Académie Julian. He studied under Gustave Boulanger and Jules-Joseph Lefebvre. But he considered the education he received there "superfluous." What had a greater influence on Hassam's work was the art he was exposed to in the city's museums and galleries, especially the works of the Impressionists.
He settled in New York City in 1889. Scenes of the city were common in his work. He was the leader of the Ten American Painters group who seceded from the Society of American Artists in 1898.
CHILDE HASSAM'S DEATH
He died on August 27, 1935 in East Hampton, New York.
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