The Hovel and the Skyscraper

Childe Hassam, one of the foremost American Impressionists painters, left high school in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in order to secure employment. In Boston, he worked as an illustrator and studied art in a random way. In the 1880s, he traveled and lived in Europe and was converted to the Impressionist style. This snow scene, one of only about a dozen the artist produced, depicts Central Park as seen from the rear window of his apartment on West Sixty-seventh Street in New York City. An old riding stable in the middle distance is framed by newer, taller buildings and a gridwork of scaffolding and beams being hoisted into place. The tall building under construction will soon replace the artist's view of the park with a wall of brick and stone. A study in contrasts between the old and the new, and between hard-edged city and snow covered landscape, it demonstrates Hassam's awareness of the rapid changes taking place in urban America at the turn of the century. The differences between the rustic hovel and the solidly engineered skyscraper are reiterated stylistically by the soft, sketchy brushwork that defines the snowy landscape and the strict system of vertical and horizontal strokes that delineate the architectural environment.