Charles Hawthorne Raised in Richmond, Maine near the Kennebec River, Charles Hawthorne became known as the leading influence in the Provincetown, Massachusetts art colony in the early part of the 20th century. His father was a sea captain, and Charles developed an early interest in marine subjects and respect for the hard lives of those whose lives centered around them. He went to New York at age 18 and worked in a stain glass factory while enrolled at the Art Students League with Vincent DuMond, George De Forest Brush, and from 1896 with William Merritt Chase at Shinnecock. With Chase, he helped found the Chase School which became the New York School of Art, and he taught there and managed it for several years. He also had a one year trip to Holland where he was influenced by the tonalist style of Franz Hals and was inspired to open his own school of art in Provincetown, Massachusetts, a fishing village. There in 1899, he established the Cape Cod School of Art patterned after the Chase School. He taught the tenets of Impressionism and plein air painting along with his own color theories. Like his mentor, Chase, he conveyed a love of teaching with a love of painting landscapes that infused outdoor light with a wide range of color. His paintings there of Portuguese fishing families and other realistic and impressionist work brought him many prizes and also many student followers. He was a much loved teacher and was known for marching his students down to the water in glaring sun and make them paint models with a two-inch putty knife. The results were called "mud-heads" because the figures looked like blobs--simple masses of reflecting color. In this way, he taught his theory of capturing patterns of light and dark before the details. During his lifetime, he got much recognition including the Hallgarten prize from the National Academy of design in 1904 and awards form The Art Institute of Chicago and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Among his affiliations were the Salmagundi Club and the American Watercolor Society. After his death in 1934, enthusiasm for his teaching inspired a Dover Publication, "Hawthorne on Painting," based on student notes of his lectures.

Biography with permission from AskArt.com

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