It was against this backdrop that the American involvement in World War I occurred. Hassam found himself in the midst of the home front, as New York City had become a central location for patriotic and nationalistic activity, rallying support for the Allied cause (Fort, Flag Paintings, 8). During the war, and even before America had officially entered it, New York had held the largest and most decorated celebration events, such as the Preparedness Day that occurred on May 13, 1916, and Fifth Avenue became known as “the most splendid parade route in the nation” (Fort, Flag Paintings, 8). At this time, Hassam not only saw the patriotic display of flags surrounding him in New York City - in fact, his studio at the time was only two blocks from the end of the parade route - but he also had already joined the American Artists’ Committee of One Hundred, a group of artists who sold their paintings in order to support a relief fund for French artists fighting in the conflict (Fort, Flag Paintings, 9). Because of Hassam’s location amidst the celebrations and his participation in the American Artists’ Committee, Fort argues that “the excitement of the [Preparedness] parade and its cause would have been infectious and Hassam was stimulated to capture this patriotic enthusiasm” in his flag paintings (Fort, Flag Paintings, 9). Certainly, Hassam must have been so moved by the “excitement” around him that he painted his flag series (Fort, Flag Paintings, 9)
However, although Fort’s claim that Hassam was stimulated by the parade and its patriotic sentiment is correct, she falls short in determining how this inspiration is manifested in Hassam’s paintings. In order to understand this, we must consider that Hassam did not depict the parade itself, and his only painting relating to the event, The Fourth of July, 1916 (The Greatest Display of The American Flag Ever Seen In New York, Climax of the Preparedness Parade in May) (1916), was not made until two months after the parade. Indeed, as art historian, Ulrich Hiesinger, has pointed out, nothing precisely indicates that “the May parade brought forth any immediate response in Hassam… Rather several months seem to have gone by before his original emotion coalesced into a positive new vision” (Hiesinger, 156). So, instead of Hassam being immediately influenced to display the surrounding patriotic and nationalistic sentiment of New York City in his artwork as Fort argues, the interval of time between the parade and the creation of his flag series helps to illustrate how the flags in the parade might not have been the only factor at work in these nationalistic presentations. In fact, the flag paintings might have been motivated also by a “revival of Hassam’s interest in the urban scene” that was facilitated by the new vision of New York bedecked in flags (Hiesinger, 156). The framing of the city’s buildings by the flags enabled Hassam to see the city in a new light. So, although the growing war sentiment that surrounded Hassam did motivate him in part, ultimately, it was his earlier devotion to portraying the urban landscape and vitality of New York City that truly seems to have propelled Hassam to paint the flag series. Thus, Hassam’s vision of the “[s]kyscrapers decorated with dynamic, chromatically diverse flags,” his new view of the buildings and city, inspired his series just as much as the patriotic sentiment of the flags themselves (Weinberg, 217).
This new vision of New York bedecked in flags, then, not only enabled Hassam to return to portraying the urban cityscape of New York City, it also revitalized his representation of the city in that he injected its buildings with a new symbolic nature. By framing the buildings with the flags, Hassam elevates the city’s status to being symbolic of America with its power, wealth and industry. In his painting of the Preparedness Day parade, for example, The Fourth of July, 1916 (The Greatest Display of The American Flag Ever Seen In New York, Climax of the Preparedness Parade in May), in which the buildings are festooned with flags, Hassam demonstrates the growing affluence of New York City. While the flags cover most of the façades of the edifices, the buildings continue to tower over the street on the right side, which may be a sign of the influence of their residents. More importantly, the flags on the upper right side of the painting serve to outline the elaborate stone work of the buildings, a marking of the residents’ wealth. Indeed, while the individual buildings are not recognizable, they are located on Fifth Avenue which had become known by that point as “millionaire row” (Fort, New York, VI) and “The Queen of Avenues” (Marcuse, 327) due to the prosperous citizens who moved into the new high-rise buildings there. As a New York Times journalist wrote in 1918, there was considered to be
“No fairer sight than the blonde wide lane of Fifth Avenue, with its innumerable banners, can be well imagined, and Mr. Hassam has precisely the vision and palette to commemorate its effect of stern gayety, of laughing beauty marching fearlessly to victory” (New York Times, 65).
So, the “blonde wide lane of Fifth Avenue,” with the combination of the flying flags and the buildings of “millionaire row” (Fort, New York, VI), comes to represent the height of New York’s and, by extension, America’s prosperity.
Image (both full and in detail)
Childe Hassam. The Fourth of July, 1916 (The Greatest Display of the American Flag Ever Seen in New York, Climax of the Preparedness Parade in May). 1916. Private collection.