MFAH assignment

Artist Name: Childe Hassam

Title: Rainy Midnight

Date: Late 1890’s

Materials: Oil on Canvas

Size:  8 5/8 in x 7 in

This is a small piece of art that really caught my eye at the MFAH. This appears to be a picture of a rainy night in New York City. I love how Hassam used warm colors to depict a cold, hazy, rainy night. His drawing only consists of maybe 3 or 4 colors. The use of his brush strokes really separate and help identify each part of the drawing. This is conveyed with his use of straight up and down brush strokes for the lights, he then used angular strokes for the street and the reflection of the lights on the ground, and he also used strokes from left to right on the carriage. His trees and the person driving the carriage are also noticeable due to the way he used his brush. I also notice he uses the one point linear perspective and a vanishing point. The street and the buildings are aligned perfectly to where they would meet at a certain point further back in the background. I really enjoyed how the reflections of the lights have like a glossy way of standing out on this picture. I attribute this to the materials used on this painting i.e. watercolors and oil. I also feel he used hatching throughout the painting to demonstrate a sense of volume and closeness with the carriage. He also needed the use of value with his color scheme to portray what parts of his piece were closer and which were further back in the background.

The title of this piece would make it an abstract painting. Hassam was an American artist that lived from 1859-1935. He was considered and extreme impressionist and the way he used light and atmosphere is his drawings was astonishing. I believe this painting can be classified under a couple of roles of art. It can be seen as helping people see the world in a new innovative way. This helps show how rain, wind and mist is a beautiful part of life. I can also see this painting being define as recording people, places and events. This is a portrait of New York City on a rainy windy night. He is definitely showing this within his art.