Mr. John Fox, Boston, Massachusetts
Wildenstein Galleries, New York, 1964
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1965

New York, Great Neck Public Library, An Exhibition of 150 Years of American Paintings to Commemorate the Sesquicentennial Celebration of Great Neck Public Schools, 1965, no. 25

Dianne H. Pilgrim, American Impressionist and Realist Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz, New York, 1974, p. 82
Sophie Monneret, L’impressionisme et son époque; dictionnaire international, Paris, 1978, p. 268
Ulrich W. Hiesinger, Childe Hassam, American Impressionist, New York, 1994, fig. 38, p. 44, illustrated in color
Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr. et al., American Impressionism and Realism: The Margaret and Raymond Horowitz Collection, Washington, D.C., 1999, p. 82, fig. 1, illustrated
H. Barbara Weinberg, Childe Hassam: American Impressionist, New York, p. 199, n. 30

Good condition overall; lined. Under UV: area of inpainting upper left to address cracking; 1 small dash of inpainting upper center; 1 ½" line of restoration to the right of the walkway lower center to address likely tear; a few small dots of inpainting in the lower left quadrant; slight retouching in the upper right corner likely to address frame abrasion.
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Painted circa 1888-89, Parc Monceaux belongs to one of the most formative periods of Childe Hassam’s career, coinciding with his three-year stay in Paris beginning in 1886. Hassam left Boston for Paris in 1886 already a well-established artist. Overseas, however, he sought to finish his formal artistic training within the academic system. Hassam enrolled at the Académie Julian in 1886, but quickly discovered that he found greater inspiration on the lively streets of Paris than in the stifling environment of the French Academic system. He began to work independently, roaming the streets of Paris in search of subjects.

Although the American artists’ colony at Giverny was concurrently beginning to flourish, Hassam’s interest remained primarily rooted in scenes of everyday urban living during these first years. His catalogue of subjects represented a cross-section of Parisian life, ranging from shopkeepers and street vendors to the city’s most affluent ladies and gentlemen.

A charming celebration of life during La Belle Époque, Parc Monceaux perfectly illustrates the evolution in both style and subject matter that Hassam’s oeuvre underwent during his years in Paris. Rendered in a bright palette of greens, Hassam skillfully portrays the effects of brilliant sunlight in what is considered one of the city’s most beautiful parks. The broad expanses of earth, sky, and foliage reveal the increased virtuosity and range of the artist's brushwork, a stylistic development likely evolving from his awareness of and proximity to the modern French painters. Like the majority of his Paris works, Parc Monceaux suggests that Hassam was more inclined to interpret these styles in a personal and vital way than were most of🐽 his American compatriots. Here, he maintains an underlying sense of compositional structure and strives to rend📖er his forms solidly, despite the loose and vigorous application of the paint.

Not long before his return home to America, Hassam exhibited his recent paintings in his hometown of Boston in March, 1889. Reviewers acknowledged the tremendous progress the artist had made since arriving in Paris: "Hassam’s paintings," one wrote, are “full of gaiety and brightness,” with a “truly Parisian savor…Since he left Boston, he has made a very noticeable gain, especially in color, and he has never painted so well as now” (quoted in Ulrich W. Hiesinger, Childe Hassam: American Impressionist, New York, 1994, p. 56).