Childe Hassam

Childe Hassam (1859-1935), the son of a Dorchester hardware merchant, had made only one trip to Europe before painting Boston Common at Twilight. He studied French art in Boston collections, and was familiar with the popular work of painters active in Paris like Jean Béraud and Guiseppe de Nittis, who took modern life as their main subject and frequently depicted fashionable young women in city settings. Hassam adapted their French aesthetic to his native city and began a series of large canvases representing several of Boston's developing neighborhoods-Back Bay, the South End, and Park Square.