Childe Hassam painting of the 1893 World’s Fair sells for $44,000

American impressionist painter Childe Hassam (1859–1935) created several paintings of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. He visited Chicago for the first time in 1892 to prepare his works that depicted what the World’s Fair would look like when open the following year. He also exhibited five oil paintings and five watercolors in the Palace of Fine Arts.

An original 1893 World’s Fair painting by Hassam sold for $44,000 in the Heritage Auctions American Art Signature Auction #8099 on November 4, 2022. The 11-by-14-inch gouache on paper laid on board had an estimate $60,000-$80,000.

Hassam’s painting depicts fair visitors walking along the balustrade of the south side of the Palace of Fine Arts (seen on the right). The distinctive dome of the Illinois State Building rises in the background on the left, while the towers of the Indiana Statue Building can be seen in the center background. Hassam included accurate depictions of A. Phimister Proctor’s lion sculpture and Olin Warner’s Minerva sculpture in this scene, though some evidence suggests that the lions were not installed until around the time of the opening of the Fair.