Hassam NYC Joel Kaplan
I chose Hassam’s Winter In Union Square (1892) because it relates in part to my group topic, symbolism and iconography. Hassam’s paintings depict a period of immense change and transition in NYC. Buildings began to rise and a skyline of unprecedented height began forming during the early 1900s. Prior to the use of steel in forming the backbone of our skyscrapers, stone was used in the tallest structures, which were always the gothic churches and religious buildings. In Winter in Union Square, the faint spire of Trinity church can be seen in the deep background through the clouds and haze of downtown Manhattan. To the right of the church is the Domestic Sewing Machine Company, which appears taller and broader, and dominates the view. The bright blue and red trolleys in the foreground (notice they are horse-drawn trolleys) form a trail across the canvas, not in any way oriented with regard to the spire, but only momentarily beneath it.
The meaning of this arrangement is fairly obvious: the power and influence of the church is waning and fading, its role in the lives of urbanites soon to disappear among the rising structures of commerce and modernity. Regarding the painterly technique used, I cannot note much except that Hassam’s brush strokes seem to work best when weather affects the image; snow and rain allow for the blurred definition that Hassam achieves in much of his painting.
P.S. - My Flip isn’t working right, I can’t seem to transfer video, so unfortunately I don’t have the comparison image.
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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)
