Allies Day, May 1917

Description

Allies Day, May 1917 by Childe Hassam turns New York’s Fifth Avenue into a brilliant pattern of flags and light. American, British and French banners project from the buildings, their reds, whites and blues set against a luminous cityscape. Seen from above the street, the view draws the eye past the large foreground flags toward the crowds and architecture beyond.

Painted in 1917, the work belongs to Hassam’s celebrated series of flag paintings. Its subject reflects the public displays of Allied solidarity that followed the United States’ entry into the First World War. The historical occasion is carried by an intensely visual arrangement: diagonal flagpoles and rippling cloth cut across the more regular rhythm of windows and facades.

Small, varied strokes allow pale blue, yellow and violet to mingle across the buildings and sky. The flags provide bold areas of color without losing the atmosphere of a sunlit avenue. In Allies Day, Hassam joins the energy of the modern city with the flickering surface and changing light of American Impressionism.