The Flag Paintings of Childe Hassam Author:Ilene Susan Fort Childe Hassam's reputation as America's foremost impressionist painter was established with picturesque city images, sparkling park and garden scenes, and sun-filled interiors created in the United States and abroard over the course of thirty years. The group of flag paintings he created during World War I are his most significant ... more »late works.
The initial inspiration for the flag paintings was the Preparedness Parade held on New York's Fifth Avenue in May 1916. During the war this avenue was the most splendid parade route in the United States, and all of Hassam's flag paintings are of Fifth Avenue or a nearby street.
Hassam's flag paintings changed over the course of the three years he worked on them, and they exhibit a greater variety and complexity than at first appears. The changes reveal Hassam's subtle move away from the ideas of orthodox impressionism toward a postimpressionist aesthetic in which structure and clarity are more essential. The motif of the flag serves not only as the primary subject but also as a major formal element.
The themes of the flag and of the modern city emerge as major motifs, and their iconography determines the way the paintings evolve. New York had come to represent the technological progress of the country, and Hassam's flag paintings reflect both the traditional patriotic spirit of the country and the nation's pride in its modern power. The technology that would win the war, and the skyscraper city, draped with flags of freedom and liberty, symbolized the power to be victorious. The paintings themselves became symbols of a new America.
Ilene Susan Fort, associate curator of American Art, Lost Angeles County Museum of Art, presents the historical background of New York's wartime celebrations and related artistic activities, including Hassam's; an analysis of the aesthetics and iconography of the flag paintings; and a discussion of the exhibition of Hassam's flag paintings as a series. Twenty-five colorplates, each accompanied by a commentary, complete this comprehensive overview of Hassam's flag paintings.« less