Importantly, even after the Preparedness Day parade, Hassam continued to be inspired by the combinations of the flags and the buildings on Fifth Avenue, and he used the flags to draw attention to New York landmarks that represented the wealth of America in Flags on the Waldorf, 1916 and Avenue of the Allies, 1917. In both of these paintings, the flags hanging off of the hotel serve to highlight the elaborate façades of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel - which, incidentally, was later torn down to build the Empire State Building (Fort, Flag Paintings, 36) - and the Knickerbocker Trust and Safe Deposit Company building, structures that would have been well-known at the time. While the flags slightly obscure the front of the Waldorf, especially in Avenue of the Allies, 1917, the long lines of stripes in the flags reflect the fluting in the neoclassical white columned façade of the Knickerbocker Trust building, and, even through the flags, the elaborate brick and stone design of the hotel may be seen. Also, Hassam brought both of these buildings to the foreground of the pictures, and in Flags on the Waldorf, 1916, the flags even seem almost to be pushed into the background. Indeed, the edifices seem to be the primary focus of these paintings, with the flags serving to accentuate them. By portraying the detailed and rich façades of these buildings in the
foreground of these works, Hassam alludes to the reputations of the institutions that were housed in them. Built in 1893, the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was characterized as “sumptuous and beautiful, rich in gilt and velvet and marble,” and with its new electricity, it attracted international guests of the finest class (Lockwood, 171). The Knickerbocker Trust and Safe Deposit Company, too, was one of New York’s primary financial institutions that enabled New York to reach its “position as the centre of the National wealth and financial power” (King, 703). As the King’s Handbook of New York noted in 1892, the Knickerbocker Trust Company was “an exemplification of the fact that enormous and increasing business and investment interests are concentrated in…New York” (King, 708). Both of these notable institutions are, therefore, able to illustrate the affluent and influential status of New York, and, in portraying them, Hassam makes them come to symbolize the wealth and power of America, stirring patriotic sentiment through accentuating these institutions with the flags.
Images (from top to bottom)
Childe Hassam. Flags on the Waldorf, 1916. 1916.
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Work, Texas.
Childe Hassam. Avenue of the Allies, 1917. 1916. Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia.