2-728-593 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Fifth Avenue Nocturne, c. 1895. Boston native Childe Hassam began painting in an Impressionist style during a three-year stay in Paris, from 1886 to 1889. On settling in New York City in 1889, he became one of America's leading Impressionists. Among his favorite subjects were scenes observed around his studio on Fifth Avenue. The subdued monotones of this view of Fifth Avenue on a rainy night suggest the influence of American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). Whistler also painted "nocturnes" (a word alluding to a type of musical composition) in which forms are poetically suggested rather than clearly defined.