40. Childe Hassam
(1859-1935)

The Little Church Around the Corner, New York City

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Hassam, The Little Church

The Little Church Around the Corner, New York City

Etching, and drypoint, 1923, 200 x 287 mm., Cortissoz 220 ii/ii. An unusually fine and effective impression with subtly modulated plate tone on Fabriani wove paper with full margins, signed in pencil with the cypher and the word imp.; tack holes for drying near the edges of the margins. The Little Church Around the Corner, at 1 East 29th Street in New York City, received its sobriquet after a theatrical couple were refused permission to wed at a larger, more prestigious church nearby and were directed to "a little church around the corner." It became a traditional place for weddings of people in the theatre. Hassam probably never met Whistler, though he doubtless heard much about him from his friend Weir, but he admired his work and his own etchings show that admiration, strongly in some, less obviously in others.