Charles Hawthorne, Student

"A Study in White" by Charles Hawthorne

Charles Hawthorne's son Joseph wrote: "My father started to study with William Merritt Chase at his Shinnecock summer school in 1896, and became his assistant the next year. I believe that it was as students there that my mother and father met. On the same Chase school literature that showed my father listed as assistant, the name of Miss Ethel M. Campbell (the future Mrs. Hawthorne) appeared as corresponding secretary. 

There at Shinnecock he lived in a shack on the beach where fishermen stowed their gear. Thirty years later we received a pheasant at Christmas from one of those fishermen, turned gamekeeper, who had seen an announcement of a national prize won by my father. This is one example of his ability to make friends. His acquaintance covered a tremendous range of diverse personalities.

His fascination with the sea and the people who worked and lived by it led him to Holland in 1898. Thenext year he went to Provincetown. There he found not only an unspoiled fishing village with spectacular contrasts of sand, sea and sky, but also a clarity of atmosphere and a unique quality of light."

To be continued

(Excerpts are from "Hawthorne on Painting" by Charles Webster Hawthorne.)