Columbian Exposition, Chicago; Childe Hassam
Gouache on tan paper, 10 5/8 x 14 in. (27.0 x 35.6 cm). Image on Wikimedia Commons, original is in the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Almost monochromatic — though the tan paper and the use of blue give it a sensation of subtle color —this study of one of the buildings of the Chicago World’s Fair: Columbian Exposition of 1893 (so named to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the Americas), showcases the simultaneous qualities of precision and casual sketchiness for which gouache is ideally suited.
