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Course: Art of the Americas to World War I > Unit 7
Lesson 6: American Aestheticism and the Gilded Age- Whistler, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl
- Whistler, Nocturne in Black and Gold, the Falling Rocket
- Whistler, Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket
- Sargent, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose
- John Singer Sargent, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose
- Sargent, Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)
- Sargent, El Jaleo
- Sargent, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit
- Celebrating America's place in the world
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Celebrating America's place in the world
Childe Hassam's painting of the Horticulture Building at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago showcases the grandeur of the event. The fair, also known as the Columbian Exposition, was a platform for countries to flaunt their progress in architecture, art, and industry. The painting invites viewers into the lush, magical world of the fair. Created by Beth Harris, Smarthistory, and Steven Zucker.
Video transcript
(easy jazz music) - [Beth] We're in the storage room at the Terra Foundation for American Art, looking at a painting by Childe Hassam, Horticulture Building
World's Columbian Exposition. What we're looking at is the
grounds of the World's Fair that was held here in Chicago in 1893. Sometimes it's called
the Columbian Exposition because it was supposed to
mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus' voyage to the Americas. - [Katherine] Hassam is showing
us just one of the buildings on what was a huge space,
many buildings built just for this World's Fair. - [Beth] This was a
truly spectacular event, and it was the architecture
and the grounds that captured people's attention. - [Katherine] The World's
Fairs were the occasion for countries to demonstrate
how advanced they were in terms of architecture, in terms of
art, in terms of industry, everything, and it's only
the second time that this young country was able
to host a World's Fair. The building that we're
looking at is the horticulture building, and the critics
at the time were saying that this building had every
specimen of plant in the world. We know that can't be true, but we do know that they were taking
examples of exotic palm trees and other kinds of plants
and putting them on display, so it's not just art,
it's not just machinery, it's also the natural world. - [Beth] That gives us a
great sense of the incredible ambition of this World's
Fair, and some of the greatest architects of the day
were involved in building the architecture and
creating the landscaping. - [Katherine] We know
Childe Hassam was in Chicago before the fair opened. - [Beth] He's here to create
images that will be used in souvenir brochures
and things like that, so there was an enormous reservoir. There were canals, bridges. There were buildings that
looked like they were made of marble and stone that
gleamed in the light. The fair got the nickname
of the White City. It seemed to people to be almost
a cross of Rome and Venice. - [Katherine] And you
say it looked like marble because most of the
buildings are actually made of stucco and plaster, and
they are meant to be temporary, and yet, visually, for the
fair-goers, it would be as if they arrived in
a magical destination. - [Beth] And as we look at this
painting, we feel very much invited to walk into the
fair, and we have a pathway that opens before us, benches,
people strolling toward us, the horticulture building with the flags, and the grounds look so beautiful. They're lush. - [Katherine] Hassam has
done a wonderful job, especially because you
have to know he did invent some of this. He had the architectural
drawings in front of him. He had seen the building on its way, but he had to invent what
would it be like to be there, and he creates an inviting,
friendly, safe place. There's a woman and
child in the foreground. They look exhausted. They've been walking everywhere,
so he tries to give us that sense that we too could
be visitors to this fair. - [Beth] We think about
paintings in this impressionist style of the late 19th
century, this loose, open brushwork that looks very
sketchy with this emphasis on bright colors and an interest
in light and atmosphere. We think about the artists
who painted in that style painting (speaking foreign language), that is, painting outside,
and directly from nature, and yet Hassam is inventing this (Katherine laughing)
largely in his studio. - [Katherine] It's true,
and some of his paintings were painted outdoors, but
in this particular painting, perhaps that's the difference
between that carefully rendered building that
doesn't seem sketchy and quickly painted and the
foreground that is more, as we say, impressionistic
because of this loose brushwork. - [Beth] Just at this time,
Frederick Jackson Turner explains his Frontier Thesis. In fact, Turner delivered
the Frontier Thesis at the World's Fair. It's this idea that the
frontier had been so important to the creation of an American identity, this continual move
westward, and this creation of an American character
because of the frontier, but Turner also talks
about how that period of American history's ended,
and so, the White City, this exposition, points to
a new moment for America to reimagine its cities. - [Katherine] And
something else that happens at this particular fair
is that the American art on display gets a lot of attention. It is as if the critics
in this country can finally say, "American art
has made something of itself." And Hassam doesn't exhibit
this work at the fair, but he does have other
paintings on view, and he is among his colleagues
exhibiting in this fair that receives international attention. - [Beth] So, the world
comes to Chicago in 1893, and Chicago assumes
importance in the world thanks to the World's Fair. (easy jazz music)