The painting of Hassam that I chose was The Manhattan Club. After a little bit of research, I learned that this painting was a portrayal of the Stewart Mansion, which was located on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. Although the Stewart Mansion is no longer in existence, I was very surprised when I realized that this is currently the location of the CUNY Graduate Center.
The building itself looks much different. Although there are still columns in front of the building and the building is still white, there are not many more similarities. The new building is much wider and the numerous stairs leading up to it seem to have been eliminated. However, these pictures match up not only because of their location, but also because of the angle at which the photo was taken. Hassam was most likely standing a little closer to the building than I was and so the vantage point is slightly off, but I’m pretty sure there wasn’t such a busy intersection there back in 1891. The sizes of the main object, the building, are similar in both pictures. They are also taken from a similar distance to the street of the building. However, the Graduate Center looks closer because the building has probably been expanded, as it is now much closer to the street and covers much of the area that was once part of the sidewalk.
Well done. Nice bit of research