GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Childe Hassam depicts New York’s Fifth Avenue decorated with American and Allied flags for a patriotic celebration during the final year of World War I. During the war, he completed more than thirty oil and watercolor paintings of New York’s flag-draped streets. Hassam was already interested in modern city subjects by 1886, when he went to Paris as a student and came into direct contact with Impressionism. In this watercolor, Hassam left his light pencil under-drawing visible and filled in the scene with overlapping dabs and blocks of color, capturing the prismatic effect of bright sunlight illuminating a bustling crowd.
Adapted from
Sue Canterbury, label copy, 2018.
NOTES
Created in 1918
End of WWI, November 11, 1918
Painted a series of flag paintings between 1916-1919
American Impressionism
Object file reviewed
Exhibitions:
Chattanooga, Tennessee, Hunter Museum of Art, 1975; Dallas, Valley House Gallery, "Master American Painters," 1975; Columbia, South Carolina, The Columbia Museum of Art, "The American Landscape: A Survey, 1850-1975," March 23, 1975-April 20, 1975, 10, cover (color illus.); Allentown, Pennsylvania, "The American Flag in the Art of Our Country," June 14, 1976-November 14, 1976, p. 46 (illus.); Austin, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, "American Impressionism from Texas Collections," April 3, 1980-May 22, 1980; Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, "Away from it All: American Travels from the Collection of Works on Paper," August 3, 2007-February 10, 2008; Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, "Life in Space: Staging Identity," March 6, 2009-May 3, 2009.
Bibliography:
Fort, Ilene Susan. The Flag Paintings of Childe Hassam. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1988.
[Passage about one of his flag paintings]--------where is this from????
Between 1916 and 1919 Hassam painted as many as 30 views of Fifth Avenue in New York decorated with flags as "the Avenue of the Allies." From the time of America's policy of "preparedness" before actually entering World War I until the war's conclusion, flag
displays were repeatedly mounted on Fifth Avenue as a sign of general support for the allies and an expression of patriotic fervor. Hassam's own patriotism as well as the sheer visual spectacle of hundreds upon hundreds of brilliant flags gave the subject
special appeal. His mental model for rendering such a scene may have been Monet's Rue Mantorqueil Decked Out with Flags of 1878, but whereas Monet blurred ..II details into nearly abstract splashes of color, Hassam provides a more visually Iiteral
description while nevertheless unifying the milling crowds, bright flags, buildings, and light-filled atmosphere.
In Celebration Day, which h:.ls also been known as Red Cross Day, the great red and white banners of the Red Cross dominate all other flags and form a majestic processional as they recede up the canyon of Fifth Avenue, This display presumably was staged
in connection with a Red Cross drive, and Hassam reacted with one of the most ecstatic of his many flag paintings. The drama of light and color in this picture, the power of !he Red Cross symbol hovering in space seemingly without support, and the upward thrust of the composition all infuse Hassam's treatment of the "banner of humanity" with an almost religious spirituality and emOliOIl. Memories of the recent historic sailing of the Red Cross ship from New York in 1914 certainly added to the emotional pitch and symbolic significance inherent in the display. Hassam has made of the scene a secular wanime equivalenl of an apotheosis.
Hassam exhibited his flag paintings together on several occasions, often in groups of 22 as a reminder of the number of allied nations. In 1919 a group of New Yorkers attempted without success to raise .$100,000 to buy 22 of the paintings as a war
memorial for the city.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Hassam, Childe (American, 1859-1935)
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location and place of origin: New York (New York/United States): TGN: 7007567
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
From 1975: Dallas Museum of Art, Munger Fund, purchased from Valley House Gallery in memory of Mrs. George Aldredge [1][2]
[1] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
[2] Works of art purchased by the Mrs. Stephen I. Munger Endowment are placed in the custody of the Dallas Museum of Art for the purpose of exhibition. The title to all works of art purchased by the Munger Fund remains with the Fund.
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WEB RESOURCES
- Childe Hassam, Biography~Learn more about Childe Hassam at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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General Description
Childe Hassam depicts New York’s Fifth Avenue decorated with American and Allied flags for a patriotic celebration during the final year of World War I. During the war, he completed more than thirty oil and watercolor paintings of New York’s flag-draped streets. Hassam was already interested in modern city subjects by 1886, when he went to Paris as a student and came into direct contact with Impressionism. In this watercolor, Hassam left his light pencil under-drawing visible and filled in the scene with overlapping dabs and blocks of color, capturing the prismatic effect of bright sunlight illuminating a bustling crowd.
Adapted from
Sue Canterbury, label copy, 2018.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
Notes
Created in 1918
End of WWI, November 11, 1918
Painted a series of flag paintings between 1916-1919
American Impressionism
Object file reviewed
Exhibitions:
Chattanooga, Tennessee, Hunter Museum of Art, 1975; Dallas, Valley House Gallery, "Master American Painters," 1975; Columbia, South Carolina, The Columbia Museum of Art, "The American Landscape: A Survey, 1850-1975," March 23, 1975-April 20, 1975, 10, cover (color illus.); Allentown, Pennsylvania, "The American Flag in the Art of Our Country," June 14, 1976-November 14, 1976, p. 46 (illus.); Austin, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, "American Impressionism from Texas Collections," April 3, 1980-May 22, 1980; Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, "Away from it All: American Travels from the Collection of Works on Paper," August 3, 2007-February 10, 2008; Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, "Life in Space: Staging Identity," March 6, 2009-May 3, 2009.
Bibliography:
Fort, Ilene Susan. The Flag Paintings of Childe Hassam. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1988.
[Passage about one of his flag paintings]--------where is this from????
Between 1916 and 1919 Hassam painted as many as 30 views of Fifth Avenue in New York decorated with flags as "the Avenue of the Allies." From the time of America's policy of "preparedness" before actually entering World War I until the war's conclusion, flag
displays were repeatedly mounted on Fifth Avenue as a sign of general support for the allies and an expression of patriotic fervor. Hassam's own patriotism as well as the sheer visual spectacle of hundreds upon hundreds of brilliant flags gave the subject
special appeal. His mental model for rendering such a scene may have been Monet's Rue Mantorqueil Decked Out with Flags of 1878, but whereas Monet blurred ..II details into nearly abstract splashes of color, Hassam provides a more visually Iiteral
description while nevertheless unifying the milling crowds, bright flags, buildings, and light-filled atmosphere.
In Celebration Day, which h:.ls also been known as Red Cross Day, the great red and white banners of the Red Cross dominate all other flags and form a majestic processional as they recede up the canyon of Fifth Avenue, This display presumably was staged
in connection with a Red Cross drive, and Hassam reacted with one of the most ecstatic of his many flag paintings. The drama of light and color in this picture, the power of !he Red Cross symbol hovering in space seemingly without support, and the upward thrust of the composition all infuse Hassam's treatment of the "banner of humanity" with an almost religious spirituality and emOliOIl. Memories of the recent historic sailing of the Red Cross ship from New York in 1914 certainly added to the emotional pitch and symbolic significance inherent in the display. Hassam has made of the scene a secular wanime equivalenl of an apotheosis.
Hassam exhibited his flag paintings together on several occasions, often in groups of 22 as a reminder of the number of allied nations. In 1919 a group of New Yorkers attempted without success to raise .$100,000 to buy 22 of the paintings as a war
memorial for the city.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Hassam, Childe (American, 1859-1935)
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location and place of origin: New York (New York/United States): TGN: 7007567
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
From 1975: Dallas Museum of Art, Munger Fund, purchased from Valley House Gallery in memory of Mrs. George Aldredge [1][2]
[1] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
[2] Works of art purchased by the Mrs. Stephen I. Munger Endowment are placed in the custody of the Dallas Museum of Art for the purpose of exhibition. The title to all works of art purchased by the Munger Fund remains with the Fund.
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