Hassam’s New York - Arielle Algarin

November 5, 2008 · Posted in Hassam's New York 

I chose to visit the Broad Street location of Hassam’s painting for this assignment because it looked so different from the Wall Street area I am familiar with.  My aunt worked in this area for quite a while and I spent a lot of time around Wall Street.  The painting portrays the Financial District with such light and natural colors that it seemed almost foreign to me except for the recognizable stock exchange building.  When I was able to visit this area for this project, unfortunately it was at a much different time of day then when Hassam created this work.  The painting seems to be during the early day, with the sun almost impossibly bright.  My photograph is from twilight, at the end of the day and the area surrounding Wall and Broad street has had so much development that hardly any light reaches the street. It is so dark on the street that the street lamps are already turned on, despite the sun clearly still being out.  It would be almost impossible to recreate the perspective that Hassam has without being on top of another building at the exact same angle.  But the same hustle of people still exists on Broad street, but I feel as if the painting and the photo are depicting two very different energies, Hassam painted what seems like a much more “relaxed” Wall/Broad street.  The two pictures represent very different time periods and almost seem to be different places, but the famous buildings and groups of people tie the two depictions together.Broad Street - Hassam\'s New York - Arielle Algarin

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