Lot Essay
Urban places of entertainment -- bars, saloons, restaurants, and theaters -- attracted many American painters during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Childe Hassam had enjoyed such establishments during his student days in Europe, and he frequented similar places, such as McSorley's Bar, upon his return to the United States.
Located on East Seventh Street, McSorley's Bar was well known as an old New York landmark. American artists met there often for glasses of ale and a smoke in part because of its proximity to many artists' studios. McSorley's became so well known as a rare survivor of old New York that in 1913 Hutchins Hapgood described the bar in Harper's Weekly: "The quaint portrait of old Peter Cooper hangs on his saloon walls, also an old play-bill announcing a comedy by Harrigan and Hart called "McSorley's Inflation." An old copy of the New York Herald, framed on the wall, announced the assassination of President Lincoln. The walls are covered with old New York and national reminiscences . . . a one-hundred-year-old safe, and ancient slanting chest, old solid chairs and tables, a sedulous care manifested to keep the place as it always was help to establish an atmosphere of tradition and permanance. Entering the saloon one seems to leave present day New York and to find oneself in a quieter and more aesthetic place . . . the heavy, solid chairs, the rich, dark colors, the trailing mementos of the past give pause to the headlong spirits, tending to take away what is unbalanced." (Harper's Weekly 58, October 25, 1913, p. 15)
The artist John Sloan, who painted his own rendition of McSorley's Bar in 1912, recalled the venerable establishment, writing, "McSorley's 'Old House at Home' is a favorite out-of-the-way retreat for appreciative ale drinkers. Behind its dust covered front window an ancient bar, sawdust covered floor, walls covered with old sporting and theatrical prints and programmes."
Hassam has captured the essence of the place, with its gas chandeliers, framed prints, and brass spitoons. The intimate size of the panel suggests that the artist may have completed the sketch while seated in the interior of the bar, perhaps savoring a pint of ale at the same time. Delicate touches of white pigment mark the highlights of the bottles and glassware on the bar -- a painting technique that displays all the dash and sparkle for which the artist is celebrated.
This painting will be included in Stuart P. Feld's and Kathleen M. Burnside's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.
Located on East Seventh Street, McSorley's Bar was well known as an old New York landmark. American artists met there often for glasses of ale and a smoke in part because of its proximity to many artists' studios. McSorley's became so well known as a rare survivor of old New York that in 1913 Hutchins Hapgood described the bar in Harper's Weekly: "The quaint portrait of old Peter Cooper hangs on his saloon walls, also an old play-bill announcing a comedy by Harrigan and Hart called "McSorley's Inflation." An old copy of the New York Herald, framed on the wall, announced the assassination of President Lincoln. The walls are covered with old New York and national reminiscences . . . a one-hundred-year-old safe, and ancient slanting chest, old solid chairs and tables, a sedulous care manifested to keep the place as it always was help to establish an atmosphere of tradition and permanance. Entering the saloon one seems to leave present day New York and to find oneself in a quieter and more aesthetic place . . . the heavy, solid chairs, the rich, dark colors, the trailing mementos of the past give pause to the headlong spirits, tending to take away what is unbalanced." (Harper's Weekly 58, October 25, 1913, p. 15)
The artist John Sloan, who painted his own rendition of McSorley's Bar in 1912, recalled the venerable establishment, writing, "McSorley's 'Old House at Home' is a favorite out-of-the-way retreat for appreciative ale drinkers. Behind its dust covered front window an ancient bar, sawdust covered floor, walls covered with old sporting and theatrical prints and programmes."
Hassam has captured the essence of the place, with its gas chandeliers, framed prints, and brass spitoons. The intimate size of the panel suggests that the artist may have completed the sketch while seated in the interior of the bar, perhaps savoring a pint of ale at the same time. Delicate touches of white pigment mark the highlights of the bottles and glassware on the bar -- a painting technique that displays all the dash and sparkle for which the artist is celebrated.
This painting will be included in Stuart P. Feld's and Kathleen M. Burnside's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.