Old Age (Excavation), 1895

Provenance

The artist
American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, acquired from the above, 1935
Milch Galleries, New York, New York, 1951
John Fox, Boston, Massachusetts, 1951
Jacob B. Gerstein, New York, New York
Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, November 13, 1957, lot 31
Babcock Galleries, New York, New York, 1960
The Houston Galleries, Houston, Texas, 1961
Private collection, Houston, Texas, by 1965
Private collection, Palm Beach, Florida, acquired by descent
Sale, Phillips Auctioneers, New York, New York, November 21, 2025, lot 122
Private collection, New York

Exhibited

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, December 23, 1895–February 22, 1896 (as Old Age)

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Tenth Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists, November 2–December 12, 1897 (as Old Age)

Boston Art Students Association, Boston, Massachusetts Loan Exhibition of Pictures by Modern Painters, March 7–27, 1898, no. 43, p. 7

Washington, D.C., The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Childe Hassam: A Retrospective Exhibition, April 30–August 1, 1965, no. 21, p. 26

Literature

Peter H. Falk and Anna Wells Rutledge, The Annual Exhibition Record of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1876–1913 (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1989), no. 152, p. 240.

The Art Institute of Chicago Exhibitions Catalogs Publications, 1897–1898 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1898), no. 168, p. 31 (as Old Age)

Charles E. Buckley, Hermann Warner Williams, and Corcoran Gallery of Art, Childe Hassam : A Retrospective Exhibition (Washington, D.C.: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1965), no. 47, p.7.

This painting will be included in Stuart Feld’s and Kathleen Burnside’s forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work.

Related Works 

The Old Elm, 1916, oil on canvas, 29 × 37 inches, signed and dated lower left: Childe Hassam 1916; Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, North Carolina

Rigger’s Ship, Provincetown, MA, 1900, oil on canvas, 22 x 19 inches, signed and dated lower right: Childe Hassam 1900; New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britian

Note

Old Age (Excavation) is a defining example of Childe Hassam’s distinctly American Impressionism.  The work depicts a quiet suburban landscape caught between nature and industry, with a seated laborer amid timber and tools set against orderly houses and gardens. Shaped by his years living in Paris and studies of French Impressionism, the painting conveys a changing landscape, rendered through a softly modulated palette of greens and ochres and luminous, subtle brushwork with a sensitivity to atmosphere and light. The contrast between raw excavation and settled homes evokes a nation in transition, capturing the tensions of progress and memory in late nineteenth-century America. Hassam was awarded countless medals and prizes throughout his career, was a member of the National Academy of Design, the American Watercolor Society, and the Societe National des Beaux Arts, among others. His work is represented throughout museums across the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.