Curriculum Materials: Art in America
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Image 16 Robert Koehler Questions: |
Rainy Evening on Hennepin Avenue
Koehler portrays Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis on a rainy evening around twilight. The leafless trees and the warmly dressed figures suggest that it is late fall or early spring. With loose brushstrokes and a limited palette of browns, grays, and blues, Koehler creates the aura of a rainfall that has just stopped. He depicts glistening puddles, the cloud-filled sky, furled umbrellas, and a soft, misty atmosphere. Various sources of light add a touch of warmth to the cool damp evening. Light glows from the library and church windows, shines from the streetcars, illuminates the face of a man who stops to light his pipe, breaks through clouds, and reflects off the rain-soaked street and sidewalk.
In the FOREGROUND, the artist's wife, Marie, and their son, Edwin, walk with the family dog. Fashionably dressed, Mrs. Koehler lifts her long skirt, to prevent her hem from sweeping the wet ground. Typical of the early 20th century, her dress emphasizes her silhouette, enhanced by the waist-pinching corset commonly worn underneath. Her hairstyle is the pompadour, drawn up high with a large hat perched on top. Her son wears a jacket, knee pants, and a cap. Other elements of the scene-electric streetcars, a horse-drawn carriage, and a bicyclist-provide a glimpse of transportation just before the age of the automobile.
Looking south from Ninth Street, the scene includes the
buildings located around Tenth Street and Hennepin Avenue.
The prominent building on the left with the lighted
first-floor window is the Minneapolis Public Library, which
housed the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts, of which Koehler
was director. On the right is the Hennepin Avenue Methodist
Episcopal Church, which stood on that site from 1881 to
1911. It was known as the Red Brick Church, and its steeple
was a prominent landmark in downtown Minneapolis. At that
time the southern end of Hennepin Avenue was more
residential than the commercial end to the north.
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