Charles Webster Hawthorne was an extremely influential figure in Provincetown, Massachusetts through his writings and his teachings at the Cape Cod School of Art, which he established in 1899. Hawthorne was also a founding member of the Provincetown Art Association. He studied at the National Academy of Design in New York City and was a studio assistant to William Merritt Chase at his Shinnecock Hills Long Island School.
Youth portrays a young couple holding hands along a dark, twilight shoreline. The man stares off to the left while the woman gazes at the viewer. The muted tonalities and colors of the scene reflect a time of transition, a move from day to night, a theme repeated by a landscape that shifts from shore to sea. Is the pair merely pausing in contemplation of a journey, or do they await an unknown arrival? In the absence of additional cues, the narrative remains a mystery, subject to the viewer’s interpretation.