![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOtPXWJew_2wkqkv8qektYEC16LqIZWkTS89Hyqg-dx4AYINNfOykICqxPSTP4agoYLdRPqLuz4ueT1pNyt4R1cgA8uQ2qcyffEkwChv3j7CbrUG3eBMAk9rUekCCJ4LNfLMUzpHDcgViY/s400/CWHawthorne_TheBath_det2.jpg)
Charles W. Hawthorne, detail of The Bath – Portrait of Emelyn Nickerson with Baby, 1915
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Charles W. Hawthorne, detail of The Bath – Portrait of Emelyn Nickerson with Baby, 1915
Some of his paintings from the nineteen-teens were lovely, luminous portraits using a lot of scumbling, such as you can see in these details of The Bath – Portrait of Emelyn Nickerson with Baby, from 1915. Many of these are portraits of common people, often doing ordinary things – not society portraits. In some portraits from this time you do see lines looking as though they were created with a palette or painting knife.
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Charles W. Hawthorne, White Church, 1920
But by the 1920s, Hawthorne was using palette and painting knives to a much greater extent. Because of his influence as a teacher, he popularized their use. Here you can see how he used palette and painting knives to paint White Church; Town View, Provincetown; and Willows, all circa 1920.
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Charles W. Hawthorne, Town View – Provincetown, 1920
Notice the broad, flat strokes of white for the building, and the wide, dark strokes of a fence below, contrasted with the narrow reddish fence posts and lines of the trees and tree branches, all looking distinctly un-brushy?
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisRubrdlyEnXnCKFvWAwpdDdIpyRToBULgiMGP-gmZl5_KnNhbO7wZA1ihebMpTbU8rdYWZ3C7yOZqIRmf-4zbu7IdV6e0qh2ZDZue9hzhVQ5KxI5BlbYCXr9tqGgWCe9esMiqu1lv97LR/s400/CWHawthorne_TownView,Ptown_det.jpg)
Charles W. Hawthorne, detail of Town View – Provincetown, 1920
Notice the interesting texture and feeling of spontaneity? Painting and palette knives can allow you to paint more quickly and spontaneoudly.
Charles W. Hawthorne, Willows, 1920
There is a local-ish connection here, too. Noted colorist Camille Przewodek, who lives in neighboring Sonoma County, studied with Henry Hensche, who was a student of and assistant to Hawthorne, and who continued teaching in Provincetown after Hawthorne's death. Although it may be tough to see a connection with these paintings, it is clearer when you see the colors Hawthorne began using later in the 20's. You can see more of Hawthorne's work here, at www.the-athenaeum.org.
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