Flag Day

I want to first of all wish my friend Sheri a very happy birthday. I talked to her today on the phone but I wanted to also wish her a happy birthday via my blog.

I did a little research on the Internet today in honor of Flag Day. For a long time, I have always enjoyed the painting entitled The Avenue in the Rain  by Childe Hassam that is a part of the White House art collection. Different Presidents have had it hanging in the Oval Office and I saw a photo of the Oval Office recently and noticed that President Obama has it currently hanging in the Oval Office.
I decided that I wanted to learn more about this iconic painting so I went to my favorite source for information: Wikipedia. So, here's what I learned about the painting and its artist:

The most distinctive and famous works of Hassam's later life compose the set of about thirty paintings known as the “Flag series”, which he began in 1916 when he was inspired by a "Preparedness Parade" (for the American involvement in World War I) held on Fifth Avenue in New York (renamed the “Avenue of the Allies’’ during the Liberty Loan Drives of 1918). Thousands participated in these parades which often lasted for over twelve hours. ”

Being an avid Francophile, of English ancestry, and strongly anti-Germany, Hassam enthusiastically backed the Allied cause and the protection of French culture. The Hassams joined with other artists in the war relief effort from nearly the beginning of the conflict in 1914, when most Americans as well as President Woodrow Wilson were decidedly isolationist. He even had in mind to volunteer to go to Europe to record the war, but the government would not approve the trip. He was even arrested (and quickly released) for innocently sketching naval maneuvers along the city’s rivers. As well as the time he gave to many committees, several of the flag pictures were contributed to the war relief, and he accepted Liberty Bonds in payment for one. Although he had great hopes that the entire series would sell as a war memorial set (for $100,000), the pictures were sold individually after several group exhibitions, the last at the Corcoran Gallery in 1922.
Monet, among other French artists, had also painted flag-themed works, but Hassam's have a distinctly American character, displayed on New York’s most fashionable street with his own compositional style and artistic vision. In most paintings in the series, the flags dominate the foreground, while in others the flags are simply part of the festive panorama. In some, the American flags wave alone and in others, flags of the Allies flutter as well. In his most impressionistic painting in the series, The Avenue in the Rain (1917), which has been in the White House permanent collection since the Kennedy administration, the flags and their reflections are blurred so extremely as to appear to be viewed through a rain-smeared window. His flag paintings cover all seasons and various weather and light conditions. Hassam makes a patriotic statement without overt reference to parades, soldiers, or war, apart for one picture showing a flag exclaiming “Buy Liberty Bonds”. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Historical Society, and the National Gallery of Art all own a Hassam flag painting.

So, now you know more than you probably ever wanted to know about a great American painting and its artist. I hope you've had a great Flag Day. Thanks for being a part of my journey!