Flat Iron Building
1904
Colin Campbell Cooper captured the electric energy of early 20th-century New York in this bustling 1904 scene. The iconic Flatiron Building rises like a wedge of stone against a hazy, wintry sky, dwarfing the chaotic swarm of horse-drawn carriages, pedestrians, and early streetcars below. Painted in a loose, Impressionist style, the scene feels less like a photograph and more like a fleeting memory of a cold, busy day in the city. It’s a fantastic snapshot of a metropolis in transition, caught right between the age of horses and the dawn of the modern skyscraper era.