The Song

Artist Charles Webster Hawthorne (American, 1872-1930)

Place of OriginUnited States

Dateabout 1912

DimensionsFrame: 51 1/4 × 51 1/4 × 2 7/8 in. (130.2 × 130.2 × 7.3 cm)

Mediumoil on board

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of Ralph King

Object number

1917.599

Not on View

Label TextCharles Hawthorne’s realistic subjects and bold manner of painting won him awards from every American art institution. George Stevens, Toledo Museum of Art Director in 1917 when the painting was acquired, was delighted to receive The Song: “It is difficult for me to express the wonder, the joy, the gratification and appreciation I am feeling…. We have longed for a Hawthorne inasmuch as we admire him as a painter and a warm friend.” For 30 years Hawthorne ran the largest art school in Provincetown, Mass., which by 1916 had become the largest art colony in the world.Published ReferencesMcCausland, E., Charles W. Hawthorne, New York, 1947, p. 30.

University of Connecticut Museum of Art, The Paintings of Charles Hawthorne, Storrs, 1968, in Acknowledgements.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, p. 59, pl. 141.

The Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 30, Jan. 1918, repr. cover.

Mühlberger, Richard, Charles Webster Hawthorne, Chesterfield, MA, 1999, repr. p. 59.

Exhibition HistoryPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 107th Annual Exhibition, 1912, no. 643, repr.

Macbeth, Exhibition of Paintings by Chas. W. Hawthorne, N.A., 1913, no. 10.

Provincetown (MA), Chrysler Art Museum, Hawthorne Retrospective, 1961, no. 32, repr.

Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art, Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings Acquired by the Toledo Museum 1901-1951, 1951.

Findlay, Findlay College, 22 American Paintings Lent by the Toledo Museum, 1949.

Muskegon, Hackley Art Gallery, 1949.

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, The Unseen Art of TMA: What's in the Vaults and Why?, September 12, 2004-January 2, 2005 (no catalogue or checklist).