Cosmopolitanism and the Gilded Age

Horticulture Building, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893
Object-Childe Hassam, Horticulture Building, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago
While in Paris from 1886 to 1889, Hassam was inspired by the French impressionists, and he began to paint with short, emphatic strokes in bright, light-saturated colors. Back in New York, he became a leading proponent of that movement and was a founder of the group known as the Ten American Painters. Horticulture Building, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago shows the large, glass-domed edifice as seen from the parklike Wooded Island set in the lagoon at the heart of the fairgrounds. Vigorous brushwork and brilliant color suggest the glare of midday sun and the blur of moving bodies, garments, and faces. Hassam visited Chicago in 1892, but his images of the exposition, which did not open until the following year, were made from architects’ drawings of the projected buildings. As an imagined view of the artificial “White City,” it underscores the fairy-tale-like perfection of the extraordinary event, with its uniformly classical architecture.
Learn more about this painting on the Terra Foundation website.
Horticulture Building, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893
Cosmopolitanism and the Gilded Age

Une Averse—rue Bonaparte, 1887

Morning at Breakwater, Shinnecock, c. 1897

In the Orchard, 1891

Summertime, 1894

Breton Woman with a Basket, Study for “En route pour la pêche” and “Fishing for Oysters at Cancale”, 1877

Breton Girl with a Basket, Study for “En route pour la pêche” and “Fishing for Oysters at Cancale”, 1877

Girl on the Beach, Study for “En route pour la pêche” and “Fishing for Oysters at Cancale”, 1877

Young Boy on the Beach, Study for “En route pour la pêche” and “Fishing for Oysters at Cancale”, 1877

The Zattere: Harmony in Blue and Brown, c. 1879

Note in Red: The Siesta, by 1884

From Shore to Shore, 1885

The Weaver, 1889

Brook, Giverny, 1887

On the Veranda, 1887

Lotus Lilies, 1888

Brittany Town Morning, Larmor, 1884

Dennis Miller Bunker Painting at Calcot, 1888

Spring Flowers (Peonies), by 1889

Horse Drawn Cabs at Evening, New York, c. 1890

Garden at Giverny (In Monet's Garden), c. 1887–91

Giverny Hillside, c. 1890–91

Horticulture Building, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893

Blossoms at Giverny, 1891–92

Self-Portrait, c. 1889–96

Les Invalides, Paris, 1896

Winter Landscape, c. 1890–1900

Havana Harbor, 1902

Portrait of Thomas J. Eagan, 1907

Portrait of a Lady Holding a Rose, 1912

Lady in a Garden, c. 1912