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This painting depicts a street or bridge viewed from an elevated perspective. In the distance are the blurred outlines of pale gray buildings, including a prominent clock tower, fading into a misty gray sky. Above the walls of the bridge, lamps create glowing orange and yellow dots that reflect off of the pavement below. The dark silhouettes of people and vehicles travel across reflective surface of the bridge. The brushstrokes are loose and fluid, giving the scene a hazy appearance.
Read the visual description

This painting depicts a street or bridge viewed from an elevated perspective. In the distance are the blurred outlines of pale gray buildings, including a prominent clock tower, fading into a misty gray sky. Above the walls of the bridge, lamps create glowing orange and yellow dots that reflect off of the pavement below. The dark silhouettes of people and vehicles travel across reflective surface of the bridge. The brushstrokes are loose and fluid, giving the scene a hazy appearance.

National Gallery of Art · Drawing

Big Ben

Childe Hassam

Date
1897 and 1907
Medium
gouache and watercolor over charcoal on wove paper mounted on board
Dimensions
sheet: 22.07 × 29.53 cm (8 11/16 × 11 5/8 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Accession number
2015.19.504
Credit line
Corcoran Collection (Bequest of James Parmelee, 1941)
Time span
1876 to 1900
Department
CG-W
Original NGA record Wikidata

Subjects and terms

  • American
  • London
  • cityscape
Provenance

James Parmelee, Washington, DC; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1941; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art

Inscription

lower right in black watercolor: Childe Hassam / 1907; lower right in charcoal: Childe Hassam 1897

NGA object ID 180937. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.