Champs Elysees, Paris 1889

Editor: Here we have Childe Hassam's "Champs Elysees, Paris" from 1889, rendered with oil paint. It really captures a rainy day mood; the light reflecting on the wet pavement is gorgeous. What draws your eye when you look at this piece? Curator: It’s compelling to consider this image as a document of urban transformation. Hassam’s impressionistic rendering belies the complex economic and social forces at play. Consider the horse-drawn carriage: its materiality, the labor required for its construction, the social class it signifies. Editor: I see what you mean! It's not just about aesthetics, but also about what went into making that world. The materials, the work... Curator: Exactly! The "plein-air" technique becomes a lens, focusing on a very particular moment of industrial-era Parisian life. Notice how the application of the oil paint mirrors the fleeting, commodified experience of the city itself? What materials and processes would capture that "experience" today? Editor: Oh wow, I hadn't thought of it like that, about the painting technique actually reflecting the experience of the people that he's showing in that setting! If Hassam were around today, maybe he'd be using video to show things moving faster, or mixed media to show consumerism. Curator: Precisely. Hassam shows a slice of Paris. Now consider, who *had* access to the Champs Elysees, and to the goods sold in the shops we can barely make out in the background. It provokes questions of consumption, class, and accessibility within this budding metropolis, all materially present within the very surface of the painting. Editor: It makes you wonder about what stories aren't being told, too, doesn't it? I’m definitely looking at it in a whole new light now. Curator: Indeed. By exploring the production and the socioeconomic conditions, this piece prompts reflections far beyond just its pretty surface.