Washington Square Park
To be perfectly honest, I chose Hassam’s “Washington Arch, Spring” because I happened to be studying in Washington Square Park when I came to this assignment on my “to do” list. It is one of my favorite places to relax in New York, there are interesting people and it’s such a quintessential park.
So, I thought that the obvious problem would be the construction going on at present in the center section of the park where the Arch is located. Oddly enough, though, nature is what presented the real problem in taking a picture that accurately recreates the painting. I soon realized that the painting was not done from the south looking across the area currently under construction, but from the north, where Fifth Avenue comes to an end. However if you stand in the area that matches where Hassam must have stood, the tops of the trees all but completely obscure the monument. I was able to find approximately the right spot in the block by looking at the proportions of space around the monument to the monument itself. For example the bottom of the monument is a little more than a third of the way up from the bottom of the frame, and the top of the monument is almost at the very top of the picture. Since from that spot you could hardly see any of the monument I moved a few houses closer to take my picture. This is why the arch is so much bigger in my picture than it is in the painting.
42 & Broadway-Kate Jackson
For this assignment I chose to make a photographic re-creation of Hassam’s painting entitled “Broadway and 42nd Street. Painted in 1902 during a frosty winter morning, Hassam’s impressionist take on Times Square bears little resemblance to today’s tourist trap. His painting depicts a muted cityscape, staring down Broadway on an angle. Snow dusts the streets and building tops, swirling up in the street to blur the sharp edges of buildings and the faces of passerbys. From the specific location listed in the painting’s title and the placement of the sidewalk, there is one of two viewpoints it could have been drawn from. I photographed both. Finding the exact frame of reference Hassam looked through is made difficult to impossible because of the changes that have been made since 1902. It’s difficult to reconcile the Times Square of today, with its shiny impersonal skyscrapers, intrusive advertisements, and busy traffic to the windswept vista of Hassam’s time. Although physically the location is the same, the contemporary photographs of a fall Times Square bears little resemblance to “42nd and Broadway.”
42nd Street and Broadway- Aliza Lieb
Hassam’s Broadway and 42nd Street
Modern Day Broadway and 42nd Street
Although Hassam painted his picture long before I took this photograph, the location is the same. Clearly many things have changed, as there were no taxis and traffic lights back then. However, I believe that the angle is the same. You can also see how much more crowded and bright Times Square is now. Before, it just looked like a regular street. In both pictures, the vanishing point is at the end of the very busy street. They all come to a point at the end.
Union Square 2
I chose to do Hassam’s “Union Square 2” as my recreation picture but unfortunately I found many obstacles in trying to take the picture. Obviously Hassam’s picture was taken sometime in the fall as much of the foliage has fallen or is pigmented yellow, on the other hand in part due to global warming, the trees in Union Square today are still in full bloom. Additionally it seems that Hassam was atop a building when he painted this picture owing to the fact that all on sees of the park is the upper left hand side (and he couldn’t have been suspended in the middle of the park while he painted this). I was able to get as high as the 6th floor in the Filenes department store in order to take this picture but I have a feeling that he was on the very top of the building as seen by the angle of the ground in relation to the road. Additionally the dense foliage made it hard for me to see the intersecting roads so I had to use Google Maps to verify that Broadway turns on to 16th street t the angle displayed in Hassam’s painting. As for the positioning of the picture, I used the tall buildings in the background as a point of reference since they were there in the Hassam painting as well. Overall, from looking at everyone else’s comparisons I feel that New York was a much more interesting place at the turn of the century. Although that may have been because Hassam was a good artist. 
Repost - Michael Elka - Hassam Assignment
Hassam, “A Winter Day on Brooklyn Bridge, 1892″
My photograph of the vantage point in Hassam’s painting.
It is a beautiful oil painting of the Brooklyn Bridge as seen in winter. To attempt to recreate this painting in the form of a photograph, I first had to study the painting. I noticed first and foremost that in this painting the tower of the bridge is slightly off center, favoring the right side of the frame. In addition, the very top of the tower is flush with the top border/edge of the painting. The largest lamp, closest to the viewer and on the right, is almost as tall as the tower due to the perspective taken. Additionally, one can count three lamps, each successively smaller, on the left side of the bridge walkway, and two lamps, again, each successively smaller, on the right side of the bridge walkway. The lamps were a key factor in determining where to take this picture, not only because the transition from the modern streetlamps to these older lamps told me the approximate area from which to photograph the bridge, but also in that the knowledge of the number of lamps in the painting is key to faithfully reproducing the image. The vanishing point is approximately where the tower’s central column meets the wooden walkway, an area that in Hassam’s original is obscured by crowds and what looks like a large ramp (a ramp, if that is what it is, that is not present today). In taking my photo, a explained above, I considered perspective, distance, size, vanishing points, and the positioning of the bridge in the frame.
I would like to note that I believe Hassam may have, when painting the bridge, cropped his image, not after it was reproduced of course but while it was being painted. I attempted to reproduce the image as best I could, with the top of the tower at the top of the frame, and the lamp almost as high as the tip of the tower, with some room between the lamp and the right edge of the frame. The amount of lamps in my photograph is also consistent with the amount in the original. Even though I reproduced this image as faithfully as possible, I ended up with much more walkway in my picture than did Hassam, with walkway and steel girdles taking up the majority of my frame, whereas in Hassam’s, the tower’s total height took up approximately one half of the frame. Hassam’s tower, in addition, looks much slimmer than the tower in real life, which suggests some editing. I understand that the bridge has changed since then, I still think Hassam may have done some visual cropping in the painting of this picture. I can see why the discrepancies would exist, being that this is an Impressionist piece of art, and the whole point of Impressionism is to garner to “impression” the picture leaves on the artist; this style is momentary, fresh, and immediate. Discrepancies are only natural
Late Afternoon, Union Square- Heather
The original Hassam piece, entitled Rainy Late Afternoon, Union Square:
My piece, entitled Sunny Late Afternoon, Union Square:
Though there is now a monument on these steps (built in 1926, about 30 years after Hassam lived in New York) I believe this is the spot where he painted his Rainy Late Afternoon. Through the trees one can see the distant intersection of 14th St and Broadway. I could not stand back as far as he was, as bushes were in my way, but it seems very clear based on the distance between these steps and the street that this is where he stood.
Union square2 - Diana Duque
I chose to attempt to recreate the picture titled Union square2. I place an emphasis on attempt because this wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. I guess it’s obvious that various changes have occurred throughout the years, however you don’t realize the depth of these changes until you sit down and compare the past and the present. As I walked around Union Square looking for the right place to take my picture from I encountered many difficulties. For one, the season appears to be at different stages since the trees are still in full bloom in my picture. In addition to this, the water hole located at the right of the original picture, no longer exists. I believe enclosed tree in my photo is it’s replacement. Another thing to take into account is the more common use of public transportation these days. As you can see in my picture there are plenty of cars and a subway entrance is also visible. Although I had difficulty looking for the right angle, I knew the photo definitely had to be taken from above, in order to capture not only the trees but some buildings and streets as well. Over to the left you can see the the curved street, there are also pedestrians in both pictures and surrounding buildings. Although the similarities aren’t overwhelming they are noticeable and I don’t think my recreation is too bad considering the difficulty I had.
Kingsbridge & Jerome - Ilirjan Gjonbalaj
I chose a painting by Daniel Hauben, who also paints areas in New York City. However, his focus is more on areas in the Bronx. This specific piece of work is a painting of the Kingsbridge Road station on the 4 line. Finding the general location of the painting was quite simple since it was a painting of a specific train station. However, I ran into some problems trying to find the exact position of the painting. But, there were a lot of clues that helped me figure out, first, in which direction Hauben was facing. For example, there was the base of the advertisement hanging from the tracks facing the right. Also, there was only one corner of the intersection with the stair entrance into the station. Finally, the most conclusive piece of evidence was the background depicting the tracks making a curve to the right towards Bedford Park Blvd. In the photograph, you can not see this clearly because of the cars, trees, and buildings blocking it. But, If you look at a subway map, you can clearly see that the tracks begin to curve at Kingsbridge Road along Jerome Avenue toward Bedford Park Blvd.
Something that I found quite ironic and interesting is the fact that when comparing the old painting and the current photograph, the train station has actually been revamped and repainted. I was expecting and imagining in my head, an old dilapidated train station. But, I guess I was lucky to photograph it right after a huge MTA project to rehabilitate and upgrade the elevated train stations in the Bronx.
Anyway, after I figured out which way to stand, I realized that it was pretty much impossible to duplicate the exact angle and position Hauben’s painting was in. There are a lot of similarities between the photograph and the painting. For example, in both you can still see the black tube-like object swerving down the building in the same manner. However, there are a lot of nuances between the two. For example, that same black object on the building is actually a little bit to the left in the photograph. Also, where there used to be a 2 story restaurant, there is currently a one floored pharmacy. The street sign is on the opposite side of the street. And just the way Hauben depicted the width of the street, for example, is impossible to do with our eyes and, therefore, a camera. Basically, I learned that there is a combination of buildings and objects moving around over time and the painter simply taking some liberty in customizing his painting.
The copy of “Kingsbridge & Jerome” by Daniel Hauben was retrieved from: http://www.artwing.com/images/Cityscapes/Kingsbridge&Jerome.JPG
Rainy Afternoon in Union Square
I chose Hassam’s painting of “Rainy Afternoon” because I really liked the way it looked and also because Union Square is one of my favorite places in New York City. When I got to Union Square, however, and looked for the exact location that this image was painted from, I found it really hard to find the exact spot. I finally found an angle of the park where the perspective of the street and buildings (towards the left) fit that of the picture. Though I could not find the round steps that appear in the painting, (towards the right) I figured that much has probably changed in the park since it was painted and so those steps might just not be there anymore. Still, the distance of the buildings in the back of the painting matched the spot I was standing from when I took the picture. Also, where there are steps in the picture that I took, the painting also seems to reveal some steps going down as the further part of the paint
ing is lower than that in the front. It was really cool to watch people in Union Square and compare it to the painting, seeing how much New York has changed in fashion and culture since the time is was painted in the exact same location.
Brooklyn Bridge - Michelle Pelan
I chose to go to the Brooklyn Bridge to locate the spot where Hassam stood to paint one of his images of this bridge. The two, pictured below, match for several reasons. First of all, although it may not be very clear, I counted three lights on either side of the walkway in Hassam’s painting; there are three lights on either side in my photograph as well. The first light on the right side is to the outside of the tower and is larger than the others in both images. The distance to the tower appears to be approximately the same in both as well. His vanishing point is in the middle of the walkway, as is mine. His, however, seems to be slightly more to the right than mine. In addition, I believe he was higher than I was when he was painting the bridge because the tower in his is larger and the people are smaller than in mine. In his, the tower is at the very top of the page whereas, in mine, there is some sky before the tower. Unfortunately, I could not get to a higher location to take the picture. His depiction of the bridge is older, from the past, as evidenced by the presence of the ladderlike structure in front of the first light on the right and the stairs in front of the tower, which no longer exist. Also, the texture of the walkway and the clothing on passersby have changed. I believe, though, that I have found the modern version of the spot on the Brooklyn Bridge that Hassam’s painting portrays.
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Cultural Map
"The Original Topography of Manhattan Island from the Battery to 155th Street" From Report on the Social Statistics of Cities, Compiled by George E. Waring, Jr., United States. Census Office, Part I, 1886. (Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, University of Texas-Austin)
