During an 1886-89 stay in paris, this boston painter experimented with working in oils outdoors. He gradually abandoned the dark-toned palette of the barbizon masters for the brighter colors of the french impressionists. Hassam named this study of a nude model, painted as if posed on a cliff, after the siren in the german poet heinrich heine's "die lorelei" (1827). In the poem, the lorelei, a water spirit dwelling in the treacherous rocks along the rhine river, lures ships to their destruction with her tantalizing singing:
night falls as i linger, dreaming,
and calmly flows the rhine;
the peaks of the mountains gleaming
in the golden sunset shine. A wondrous lovely maiden
sits high in glory there;
her robe with gems is laden,
and she combs out her golden hair. Object Type: painting, study. Genre: nude. Date: 1904. Place of creation: USA. Dimensions: height: 63.8 cm (25.1 in); width: 53.5 cm (21 in). Medium: oil on canvas. Collection: Walters Art Museum. Childe Hassam - The Lorelei - Walters 37310
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