Childe Hassam, American Impressionist (Metropolitan Museum of Art Series)

"I believe the man who will go down to posterity is the man who paints his own time and the scenes of every-day life around him," declared Childe Hassam in 1892. It was as a pioneer of American Impressionism and perhaps its most prolific and successful practitioner that Hassam (1859-1935) realized this credo. In so doing, he provided an account of our national life during a dynamic period. At the same time he helped to create a wave of enthusiasm for American Impressionism that he rode to fame and fortune.