On View
Not on viewObject number1972/3.39
Telling the Bees
Artist
Childe Hassam
(American, 1859-1935)
Date1891
Mediumwatercolor on paper
Dimensionsimage: 21 3/4 × 17 3/4 in. (55.2 × 45.1 cm)
frame: 30 1/4 × 26 1/4 × 2 3/4 in. (76.8 × 66.7 × 7 cm)
frame: 30 1/4 × 26 1/4 × 2 3/4 in. (76.8 × 66.7 × 7 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Dorothy Upjohn Dalton
Exhibition History"A Century of Caring: One Hunderd Years of American Realism", KIA (May 18 - Aug. 3, 1986).
"70 Years, 70 Works from the KIA Permanent Collection," KIA (Nov.19, 1994 - Feb.10, 1995).
"Masterworks from the KIA Permanent Collection," Dennos Museum Center (Mar.1997 - Feb. 1998); Midland Center for the Arts (Apr. - July 1998).
"The Woman as Subject: Selections from the Permanent Collection," KIA Long Gallery (June 13 - Sept. 8, 2003).
Label TextChilde Hassam worked as a draftsman and commercial illustrator before turning to fine art in the early 1880s. In 1886 he traveled to Paris, where he studied at the Académie Julian and was exposed to the increasingly popular Impressionist movement. When he returned to America three years later, he began depicting American subjects with the same pastel palette, broken brushstrokes, and focus on the play of light that the Impressionists employed, fulfilling a desire for art fashioned in the new European style among an increasingly cosmopolitan American elite. He quickly became known for his impressionistic depictions of Boston, New York, and the countryside of New England, often mimicking French Impressionists not only in terms of style but also via a focus on vignettes of everyday life in modern cities. However, unlike some of his counterparts in Europe, Hassam tended to avoid social commentary in favor of picturesque views of snowbound city streets and squares and sunny snapshots of everyday life in rural New England.
Telling the Bees refers to a slice of folklore common in 19th-century New England. Many farmers kept their own beehives to provide honey for family needs or sale. Tradition held that when a member of a family died, someone had to tell the bees about the death and drape the hives in black cloth, or they would leave the hives and not return.
