My first job after graduating as an art major from Cal State Long Beach was at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where I was the secretary for the American art department (before secretaries were called administrative assistants). I had the pleasure of working closely with associate curator, Ilene Susan Fort, and during my time at the museum she was in the early stages of conceiving a new exhibition, The Flag Paintings of Childe Hassam. Before the exhibition took place, I moved from Los Angeles back to San Diego, so unfortunately, I didn’t get to help with it. But, when I dropped by the museum several years later, Ilene gave me a copy of the exhibition catalog, which she wrote. (Note to self: Look up Ilene Fort.)
When selecting a flag painting for my Hope necklace (and later for my Flag rings), I pulled out Ilene’s exhibition catalog and fell in love with The Avenue in the Rain (Flag Day), 1917 (shown left). I especially liked the fact that the painting was in the collection of The White House. Months later, I was watching Oprah Winfrey’s interview of newly inaugurated President Barack Obama, there was The Avenue in the Rain. Hanging in The Oval Office!
The Avenue in the Rain (Flag Day), 1917, is one of a series of over 25 patriotically inspired flag paintings by Childe Hassam (1858-1935), a leading American impressionist artist. Prominent and prolific, Hassam helped popularize the impressionist style among American collectors, and the paintings in his flag series are his most significant late works.
The series was inspired by the May 13, 1916 Preparedness Day, an enormous parade along New York’s Fifth Avenue that was the first large scale public demonstration of support for US involvement in the European conflict that was to become World War I. Staged along the most splendid parade route in the country, the Preparedness Day Parade numbered more than 137,000 marching laborers, businessmen, mothers, doctors and teachers. The event lasted almost thirteen hours.
After years spent in Paris, Childe Hassam and his wife lived in New York, and his studio was a short walk from the parade route. “I painted the flag series after we went into the war,” recalled the artist. “There was that Preparedness Day, and I looked up the avenue and saw those wonderful flags waving, and I painted the series of flag pictures after that.”
Patriotic enthusiasm leading up to the war, intensified after the US entered the cause, providing Hassam numerous and varied opportunities to paint his flag subjects. Increasingly elaborate war related ceremonies were staged, and when top ranking officials of each Allied country visited the United States, multiple parades numbered among the official ceremonies. The flag of each country being honored flew throughout the city.
Allies Day, May 1917, 1917
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Avenue of the Allies, Great Brittan, 1918
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Thank you, Ilene. I look forward to finding you!
And now, dear reader, here are images of some of Hassam’s earlier works. I’m getting carried away, perhaps, but they are all so beautiful, I can’t stop myself from including them. Enjoy.
Winter Midnight, 1894
Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio
Rainy Day, c. 1889
Private Collection
Celia Thaxter’s Garden, Isles of Shoales, Maine, 1890
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
SOURCE
The Flag Paintings of Childe Hassam, Ilene Susan Fort, 1988. Museum Associates, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Leave a comment