Surf, Isles of Shoals

This painting is one of the finest of a series of works that Hassam made during summers in the 1890s on Appledore Island, one of the Isles of Shoals, which lie ten miles east of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This remote resort was one of Hassam's favorites from the 1880s until about 1916. On Appledore, the largest island, a 400-guest hotel was opened in 1848 by the Laightons, whose daughter Celia LaightonThaxter, a poet and amateur artist, probably encouraged Hassam's first visit there in 1883. His series of scenes of the coast of Appledore, painted beginning in 1890, are reminiscent of French Impressionist Claude Monet's views of Pourville and Étretat made in the early 1880s. The series was among the most fruitful of his long career, inspiring almost a tenth of his works. This scene is a particularly fine example. It presents a broad view of a tidal pool—rendered with great chromatic variety and inventiveness—embraced by rocks and punctuated by spray; distant islands appear on the horizon.