Alfred William Hassam
The story of British artist Alfred William Hassam is both fascinating and tragic – judging by what little is known about his life, he could be one of the greatest unrealised artistic talents of the Victorian era. Born in London in 1842, the son of a velum binder, Hassam is thought to have received his artistic training at the South Kensington Schools.
Hassam joined the London stained glass firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne in the early 1860s, showing great talent as a designer of stained glass. He won a prize for his stained glass design for the north staircase of the South Kensington Museum in 1865, justifying his reputation as one of the most innovative and progressive artists of his day.
In addition to his work in stained glass, Hassan also exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists, and the Dudley Gallery during the 1860s. Tragically, on the 2nd of June 1869 at the age of twenty seven, Hassan died of consumption (pulmonary tuberculosis) in Hastings, cutting his promising career short.
Apart from stained glass, Hassam worked primarily in watercolour, producing works that rival the greatest artists of the time. Although there is no evidence that he had any contact with the artists of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, it seems very likely that he was influenced by the likes of Burne-Jones, Morris, Rossetti and other artists of the wider Pre-Raphaelite circle.
In this particular work of a young lady standing by a chair, Hassam shows that he was a very talented draughtsman. Depicted looking wistfully into the distance while holding a piece of material, which adds a sense of intensity to the atmosphere of the work, the rendering of the woman is exceptionally and beautifully detailed.
There is no doubt that Alfred William Hassam was an incredibly talented and promising artist. The creative vision and technical skill that he exhibited in his works makes one wonder what he could have achieved had his career been allowed to progress to its maturity. To this day he remains one of the most undervalued and under-recognised artists of the period.
There are very few works by Hassam in existence and works by the artist rarely come to the market. This work is a prime example of Hassam’s talent and arguably one of his most beautifully composed and executed paintings. It is comparable to the work of the great Pre-Raphaelite artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Simeon Solomon.
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1364089/stained-glass-design-alfred-hassam/