The Whitcomb Farm, Stratham, N. H.

Childe Hassam was among America’s most important impressionists, having studied at the Boston Art Club and in Europe at the Académie Julian. Shortly after settling in New York in 1899, the artist was instrumental in founding a group known as “The Ten” which splintered from the Society of American Painters. Other members included William Merritt Chase, Edmund Charles Tarbell, Frank Benson, John Henry Twachtman and J. Alden Weir. By 1903, Hassam began spending portions of his summer in coastal towns such as Cos Cob and Old Lyme, where his influence was deeply felt by fellow artist.

Hassam turned to printing late in his career, creating nearly 300 etchings between 1915 and his death in 1935. This etching depicts a farmer unloading a wagon full of hay within the shadows of a barn and was executed after the artist and his wife moved to an eighteenth-century cottage on East Hampton.