Nocturne, Railway Crossing, Chicago 1893

Childe Hassam made this watercolor painting titled 'Nocturne, Railway Crossing, Chicago' sometime at the end of the 19th century. This was a period of rapid urbanization and industrial expansion in the United States, and Chicago was at the heart of it all. At first glance, the painting shows a night scene with a horse-drawn carriage and the reflections of city lights on a wet street. But consider this: Hassam was trained in Paris, and he brought European impressionism back to America with him. He was also engaging with the aesthetic ideas of James McNeill Whistler who saw art as valuable because it had no social function. Whistler’s influence encouraged artists to see the modern city as a subject of beauty. To better understand this artwork, you might want to do some digging in the archives of Chicago’s cultural institutions. Think about how the Art Institute of Chicago contributed to the transformation of visual culture in the United States by exhibiting works such as this one.