Sweeping Snow

A solitary figure in a dark coat pushes snow from a city street, the white drifts catching the cold blue light of a winter morning. Childe Hassam, the most American of the Impressionists, painted this small, brisk canvas in the 1890s, turning a chore into a composition of pure atmosphere. The broad strokes of white and lavender, the huddled walkers and the flurries in the air capture New York winter as a shimmering, almost abstract veil of weather.