Spring Morning in the Heart of the City

Childe Hassam

1890, reworked 1895–99 · Oil on canvas · The American Wing

Hassam’s city scenes often focused on Manhattan’s spine, Fifth Avenue, and the then-fashionable parks that adjoined it. Here, he recorded the busy area west of Madison Square Park, which was established before 1850 between Fifth and Madison Avenues just north of Twenty-Third Street. The entrance to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, denoted by a classical portico, a large circular clock, and two curbside gaslights, appears at the lower left. This elegant hotel and others, along with theaters, concert halls, and restaurants, made Madison Square one of the city’s most vibrant centers for entertainment and tourism during the 1890s.

Artist

Childe Hassam

Date

1890, reworked 1895–99

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of Ethelyn McKinney, in memory of her brother, Glenn Ford McKinney, 1943