In this vivid account of one of Boston's best-loved paintings, leading
American art specialist Erica E. Hirshler illuminates the context of
Childe Hassam's 1880s city scene. With its rosy rust tones, intimate
familial vignette and quiet expanse of snow-laden park, today "At Dusk
(Boston Common at Twilight)" seems to encourage reflection and represent
a decidedly old-fashioned city. Yet Hirshler reveals the ways in which
the painting visually signaled the emerging modern city, from subtleties
about women's place in the urban landscape to the uproarious clang of
the streetcars that would have been heard on the busiest block in
Boston. Enriched with reproductions of related paintings and archival
illustrations, this evocative volume explores the countered conventions
and bulldozed buildings behind the canvas's creation. Carefully
researched and elegantly presented, the latest addition to the MFA
Spotlight series will delight Hassam fans and history buffs alike.