Framed by the Flags:
New York City as a Symbol for American Power in Childe Hassam’s Flag Paintings
Jennifer Faith Edelstein, Princeton Class of 2009
I painted the flag series after we went into the war. There was that Preparedness Day, and I looked up the avenue and saw these wonderful flags waving, and I painted the series of flag pictures after that.
- Childe Hassam
As Childe Hassam stated to an interviewer in 1927, he had been inspired to produce perhaps his best known work of art, his “series of flag pictures,” by his vision of the “wonderful flags waving” in the Preparedness Day parade, a patriotic celebration that occurred in New York City on May 13, 1916 (qtd. Fort, Flag Paintings , 8). Hassam’s flag paintings, which depict a view of New York City adorned with American flags and those of the other Allied nations of World War I, resonate partly due to the “stirring patriotic imagery” of the flags (Weinberg, 216). Many art historians, including Susan Ilene Fort, a foremost Hassam scholar, have characterized these paintings as Hassam’s contribution to the war effort because of Hassam’s portrayal of the flags, which serve as a clear patriotic symbol and, thus, evoke nationalistic feeling and support for the Allied cause. So, from her interpretation of Hassam’s statement regarding the Preparedness Day parade, Fort claims that Hassam was “no doubt inspired by the heightened war sentiment and the increased number of war-related ceremonies,” with his “strong partisanship” motivated by his own “virulent dislike of Germany and anything German” (Fort, Flag Paintings, 9). Fort argues that Hassam was primarily motivated by a patriotic desire to depict the flags hung in New York City and that they are, therefore, the key symbolic image in his paintings.
Yet while Fort’s claim may be true to some extent, could the flags have inspired Hassam in another way, and could there be a different patriotic symbol in Hassam's paintings? Indeed, looking again at Hassam’s statement, we note that he claimed that he “looked up the avenue” to see the flags waving (qtd. Hassam, Fort, Flag Paintings, 8). It is the avenue framed by the flags, rather than just the flags alone, that struck Hassam. The flags that hung on the buildings on Preparedness Day seem to have spurred Hassam to view the city in a new light and to have a renewed interest in painting New York’s urban scene, even though he had previously become disillusioned with New York City after its rapid modernization (Weinberg, 203). Looking through the frame of the waving flags, Hassam came to see the city itself as a symbol for America’s growing wealth, prosperity and power. So although Fort may cite Hassam’s depiction of the many brightly-colored flags as the primary nationalistic symbol in the paintings, the flags in Hassam’s series are not meant to be viewed in isolation. Rather, they may serve to frame and draw attention to the notable New York buildings in the background; these buildings, which represent New York’s rising status as an affluent and industrial American city, thus come to act as patriotic symbols themselves.
The Exhibit
Hassam's Paintings of New York
World War I and the Preparedness Day Parade
Symbols of Wealth
Avenue of the Allies
A Modern Metropolis
Rivaling Europe
Works Cited
About the Author
The Gallery
An American Impressionist: The Early Years
An American Impressionist: The Later Years
Flag Paintings in Paris: A Study for the Flag Series?
Other Paintings in the Flag Series
Hassam's Flag Etchings
