A North East Headland

Childe Hassam

National Gallery of Art

A rocky shoreline juts into a vivid, aquamarine-blue body of water in this loosely painted, nearly square landscape. The rocky beach and a few pieces of driftwood stretch in front of us in shades of ivory white, sand brown, gold, and mustard yellow to fill the bottom half of the painting. A few touches of shamrock green suggest plants growing in the near distance. A higher, almost flat-topped promontory reaches into the water beyond, nearly spanning the width of the composition. Areas of pine green suggest more growth in the distance near the left edge. A line of pale brown reaches across much of the horizon, which comes four-fifths of the way up the painting. The sky above is muted turquoise blue. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right corner, “Childe Hassam 1901.”