Rainy Day, Columbus Avenue, Boston

Childe Hassam can be seen as the model Impressionist in America. His Boston and New York cityscapes represented the only American Impressionist art beside Cassatt’s to couple stylistic innovation with contemporary subject-matter. He began to make a name for himself with rainy or snowy city scenes such as Rainy Day, Columbus Avenue, Boston. His palette moves in subtle nuances across closely related colours, nicely catching a city atmosphere. Though the choice of colours recalls mainstream American tonalism, the subject prompts comparison with the realistic Paris street scenes of De Nittis or B�raud as well as with Caillebotte’s 1877 Paris Street, Rainy Day.