The Goldfish Window

This delightful piece by Childe Hassam came towards the end of his career in 1916. The period of WWI was a prolific era for his career, heralding artworks such as this as well as a number of his famous flag series.

The carefully planned composition in front of us here features a table with goldfish bowl taking centre stage. Light saturates this piece, in keeping with the typical methods of the Impressionists. A young lady is pictured in her nightwear or perhaps a dress of light material and holds a flower to her chin, in a beautifully feminine image. Her red hair is tied up and she stares at the swimming fish, seemingly in a trance. The green tones of her garden show through the fishbowl and work well against the colours of the fish. The artist carefully shapes the light and contours to create this illusion of a curved glass bowl. It is placed upon a simple table which is placed up against an open window. This beautiful content gives a romantic image of rural life, with a busy garden stretching off into the background. Curtains are used to frame three sides of the painting, whilst there are also several structural elements which help to strengthen the composition, including some beams to the building found just outside.

Hassam is most famous for his depictions of nature and city life, but he also produced stunning interior works such as this from time to time. He had several good friends living in the countryside, or at least with second properties there, and he would visit and spend time in their company across the summer. They would also be joined by other like-minded individuals for the purposes of exchanging ideas in an open setting, even trading artworks or poetry with each other in an informal setting. As much as he loved the city life, and was highly positive in how he depicted it within paintings such as The Avenue in the Rain, Rainy Day, Boston and The Fourth of July, 1916, nature was also a big influence on him and something that he loved to return to whenever the opportunity arose.

The Goldfish Window is believed to now reside at the Currier Museum of Art which is based in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA. The artist would produce much of his best work within this county and so it is entirely right that some of his original works remain here within private collections for us all to enjoy. The artwork is listed as being 34 3/8 x 50 5/8 in in size and was purchased in 1937 using funds directly from the institution. Hassam would have been in his late fifties at the time of this work and would carry on for nearly another two decades, continuing to work hard and output large numbers of paintings, drawings and lithographs. He is today regarded as one of the most famous American artists of all time and played an important role in bringing the Impressionist style to the US public.