Haymarket Theatre, Boston, September 28, 1798
Haymarket Theatre, Boston, September 28, 1798 is a watercolor painting of Hatch's Tavern, the Haymarket Theatre, and the William Foster House. The house stands on the southeast corner of Boston Common. The perspective is from West Street, overlooking Tremont Street and the Mall (Historic New England). As the title of the work tells us, the piece was created in 1798. Well after the Revolutionary Era, Boston is pictured under the context of America's early nationhood. The artist is unknown.
Material Composition
Haymarket Theatre is a watercolor painting. Until the 1780s, there was little indication that watercolor painting would be a medium for the expression of the "higher aspirations of art" because it was deemed a lowly and inferior branch of visual art (Wilton, Lyles, & Royal Academy of Arts 1993, p. 15). Indeed, watercolor did not emerge as a significant branch of landscape painting until the mid-18th century when British artists began to use watercolor for topographical expression (Wilton, Lyles, & Royal Academy of Arts 1993, p. 80). In the period that this painting was created, watercolor was emerging as a legitimate medium for landscape artwork. Watercolor became the ideal medium for spontaneous recording of transient atmospheric effects, given the speed of its application and inherent luminosity (Wilton, Lyles, & Royal Academy of Arts 1993, p. 133). Because this painting attempts to portray the landscape under a gradient sky, the benefits of watercolor are apparent in the artist's choice of medium. Furthermore, the use of watercolor signifies the artist's probable desire to realistically and rapidly visually transcribe the landscape and the atmosphere.