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This loose, fluid sketch has the spontaneity of a painting rendered out of doors in the Impressionist manner.

With a few strokes of the brush, Hawthorne transcribed the boats, cottages, and shore of this Cape Cod harbor.

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Charles Webster Hawthorne

Sketch, Hyannisport, 1903

oil on board

Gift of Mary B. Milliken

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Hawthorne is so strongly associated with Provincetown that it is something of a surprise to find that he took a painting trip to Hyannis Port, about fifty miles away. What is even more unusual is that the works painted in Hyannis Port are much closer to Impressionism than his normally realist Provincetown paintings, with their somber palette. A student of William Merritt Chase and a lover of Old Master painting, Hawthorne is equally known as a teacher and artist. His skill at depicting the fishermen in Provincetown is legendary, while his work in Hyannis Port is much less known.

This loose, fluid sketch has the spontaneity of a painting rendered out of doors, directly before the subject. With unhesitating strokes of the brush, Hawthorne transcribed the boats, cottages, and shore of this Cape Cod harbor. He abandoned his usual somber palette in favor of the bright blue hues common to Impressionist seascapes. His summary treatment of the figure and boats, and his subtle distinctions between sky, shore, and sea, emphasize the flat surface of the canvas. This sketch of the harbor of Hyannis Port is an eloquent expression of the artist’s love of the Massachusetts coast.

Reference

Mrs. Charles W. Hawthorne. Hawthorne on Painting. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1960. ISBN-13: 978-0486206530