Woman Cutting Roses in a Garden 

Childe Hassam made this oil painting, "Woman Cutting Roses in a Garden," at the turn of the 20th century, during a period of rapid social and economic transformation in the United States. The painting depicts a woman in a rose garden, a scene that evokes ideas of leisure, beauty, and domesticity. Hassam was part of a larger artistic movement known as American Impressionism, which embraced these values and frequently represented the lives of the upper class. Consider the setting. Gardens like these were often associated with wealth and privilege. The woman's activity and dress also indicate her social standing. The image subtly reinforces the era's social hierarchy, even as it presents a seemingly innocent scene. To fully understand this artwork, one might research the social and economic context of the Gilded Age in America, the history of American Impressionism as an artistic movement, and the role of gardens in elite culture. Art history is a process of uncovering the layers of meaning embedded in images, and in doing so, we can better understand the values and beliefs of the societies that created them.