Winter in Union Square
What I first noticed about the painting was the weather. I don’t have much to say about that, other than that I’m not looking forward to meteorological history repeating itself this year (I thank God every winter for global warming… evidently he answers the prayers of American evangelicals who think climate change is “cyclical”). The second thing I noticed, though, were the horse-drawn buggies. I have plenty to say about that, and none of it political (except the parentheticals).
To me, the notion of New York without awful public transportation is as foreign as the notion of cause without effect (like, say, carbon emissions without rising global temperatures). But once upon a time, Union Square had horse drawn buggies! Buildings, a nice big stone church, no skyscrapers just yet but still, signs of advanced civilization… and horse drawn buggies! Today, it is where I transfer to the Q to Brooklyn, or the 6 to the Honors dorms, or the L to 1st avenue (more scenic route to the Honors dorms; I believe it’s faster as well), or the 4 and 5 on those rare occasions when I have somewhere to go uptown that isn’t Hunter college. All of which are miserable, crowded, airless rides on tracks with mechanical signals from the 1920’s. But once upon a time, New Yorkers got around on horses and buggies. On the one hand, it makes me thankful for speedy mass transit. On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind some fresh (less polluted) air on my next trip uptown. For that, I envy Hassam.
(side note: his horse drawn buggies and trollies predate our mechanical train signals by only thirty years. And this painting was painted in 1890. I think Benjamin Harrison was president! Is it not time for an upgrade?!)
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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)
My perspective was not even in the picture. The point I wanted to make by these two pictures was that Union Square is a fundamentally different place from what it used to be, and so I chose to take an aspect (the subway station) totally alien to the picture. It probably would have been futile to find the actual vantage point of the artist in light of what Union Square has become.
I say this, because I want to finish the assignment.