Just Off the Avenue, Fifty-Third Street, May 1916

Childe Hassam captured this street scene with oil on canvas, sometime in May. Look at those tiny strokes, it’s almost like he’s building the image, brick by brick. I can imagine Hassam, standing right there, trying to nail that light, the way it bounces off the buildings, makes everything shimmer. And the American flag! It’s not just a flag; it’s a slash of red against all that blue, a real punch. The way he’s dabbed the paint, it feels almost like the air itself is vibrating. He’s part of this whole lineage of painters, wrestling with how to show what it feels like to be in a particular place, at a particular moment. He's also in conversation with painters like Monet, trying to capture the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. There’s no one right way to see this painting, and that’s what makes it so alive.