Boston Common at Twilight

In the mid-1880s the streets around Boston Common were changing fast. Rows of elegant houses were giving way to shops and offices, and the red brick buildings along the left of this picture were mostly new. Hassam knew the view well. His studio was just across the street. He chose the Tremont Street Mall, one of the broad tree-lined walks through the Common, and set the bustle of the city against the quiet of the snowy park. Trolley cars and carriages crowd the road, the fence, lampposts and trees rush away into the distance, and the streetlights and shop windows are already lit. In front, a young mother and her child stop to feed the birds. Hassam tied the whole scene together with reds, the brick, the lamps, the sunset sky and the pinkish snow, down to the glowing end of a cigarette in a passer-by's hand. He wrote 1885–86 beside his signature, and in March 1887 the canvas was sold at auction in Boston for 750 dollars.