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Whose Common: 1750-1850

Haymarket Theatre, Boston, September 28, 1798

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Haymarket Theatre Visual Elements
Visual Elements
This watercolor painting examines the southeast corner of Boston Common in the 1790s. Three buildings are shown in the picture: the Haymarket Theatre, Hatch's Tavern, and the William Foster house. Behind the buildings is a gradient sky while humans are shown laboring on the landscape in the foreground. This patch of land is enclosed by fences and the trees of the Mall. Beyond this point is the edge of the Boston Common. Titled Haymarket Theatre, Boston, September 28, 1798, this picture highlights the largest building in the image. Although it does not occupy the majority of the image, it is portrayed to be much taller than Hatch's Tavern or the William Foster house. In 1796, the Haymarket Theatre was the largest theater built in America, capable of hosting around 2,000 people (Stoddard 1975, p. 65). Because of its historic capacity, the building likely was quite large in comparison to the tavern and house adjacent to it. As a large theater, it is curious that it is located on a remote corner of Boston Common in this period.
The theater's background is tied to a larger history of Bostonian spatial and cultural growth. In the early American republic, many Bostonians opposed theater; theater was illegal in the city because the playhouse was seen as a "school of vice" to dominant Puritan religious groups and many prominent political figures (Nathans 1993, p. 113). The anti-theatrical law was in place for the first two decades of the early republic. In the 1790s, the city's first theaters were founded as public movements to repeal anti-theater laws emerged (Nathans 1993, pp. 114-115). This includes the Federal Street Theatre, which opened in 1794. The theater's owners sought to use the theater to disseminate Federalist political beliefs, endorsing the view that the government should be controlled by a rational group of elites that was detached from "the people" (Nathans 1993, pp. 126-130). From this political backdrop, the foundations of the Haymarket Theatre were in place; the Haymarket Theatre was established by a group of pro-French Jacobins who were antagonized by the Federalists in the Federal Street Theatre's performances (Stoddard 1975, p. 63). The Jacobins purchased a parcel of land from Israel Hatch that was across from the Mall on the southeastern corner of the Common (Stoddard 1975, p. 63). The theater engaged in spirited competition with the Federal Street Theatre, creating a rivalry that proved detrimental to both groups (Stoddard 1975, p. 68).

Along the edge of the Common at the turn of the 19th century, the landscape was largely rural and pastoral. With only a few commercial businesses, the land was mainly used for gardens and pasturage (Herndon & Challu 2013, p. 73). As the city grew in population in the 1790s, it grew in territory, as people began to move southward and westward from the urban center; people began to settle along the outskirts of the Common as the area near the State House was appropriated by the city's elites (Herndon & Challu 2013, p. 66).

Haymarket Theatre drops the fantasized approach of Needlework Picture and creates a more literal impression of the landscape instead. As is evident from the choice of watercolor, the artist likely sought to spontaneously record the atmosphere. The use of watercolors to create a landscape painting also signifies a shift in artistic thought about nature (Wilton, Lyles, & Royal Academy of Arts 1993, p. 18). While the landscape is not fantasized, the transient sky and colorful land are intended to be emotive; by blending topographical features with climate, the landscape is conceived and presented in terms of its significance for human beings (Wilton, Lyles, & Royal Academy of Arts 1993, p. 84). Watercolor paintings place a poetic value on landscapes by playing with the audience's conception of open space and distance (Wilton, Lyles & Royal Academy of Arts 1993, p. 18). Because Haymarket Theatre offers an image of human developments on the Common under a hazy sky, it draws similar parallels to popular landscape art in the latter part of the 18th century. The vast expanse of land that blends into the sky is enclosed for human enterprises in the forefront of the image. Within a broader phenomenon of Bostonian expansion westward over the land, this picture uses watercolor and perspective to exhibit the significance of these early settlements upon the open country. Haymarket Theatre positions commercial enterprises along the Common as early increments of urban expansion in the early American republic. Indeed, a theater pioneering westward commercial development along Boston Common is indicative of a shifting Bostonian cultural identity; the proliferation of theaters was a cultural phenomenon in late-18th-century Boston. Conceived of in an open landscape, Haymarket Theatre renders the theater as a sign of Boston's commercial and territorial growth.
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.
Haymarket Theatre Display & Performance
Display & Performance

Between 1750 and 1850, watercolor landscape paintings were used as ornamental decorations in wealthy and merchant-class homes. The paintings would have been mounted on walls, overmantels, and cornices (Kogan 2013, p. 114). Landscape decor conveyed a family's pride in their local towns and country, celebrating American ideals in the early republic (Kogan 2013, p. 115). By using imagery of local landscapes as decor in their homes, wealthier Americans conveyed pride to houseguests. Haymarket Theatre portrays the outskirts of the Boston landscape, meaning its display likely aided a wealthier or merchant-class family in their social pursuits; much like Needlework Picture, the display of Haymarket Theatre indicates that it functioned as a household conversation piece. Both elite and merchant-class Americans used landscape paintings of vistas, homes, and buildings as visual proof of their importance during the early republic (Kogan 2013, p. 116). Thus, the image of Hatch's Tavern, Haymarket Theatre, and the William Foster House was likely used by a wealthier family to simultaneously convey a sense of pride about the landscape and to reinforce their socioeconomic status.