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Lot Essay
In an acclaimed series executed between 1916 and 1919, Hassam celebrated the ubiquitous flags that infused the New York City streets with an atmosphere of nationalistic pride during the difficult years of World War I. Today, Hassam’s flag paintings are widely considered to be masterpieces of 20th Century art. Sixteen examples are housed in prominent museum collections, notably including The White House, the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. The present example is the only work in the series to actually depict a patriotic parade in progress. With the spirited crowd marching under the banners of the brilliant trio of American, British and French flags, The Big Parade movingly evokes an enduring spirit of hope and international cooperation, even in the face of some of history’s darkest hours.
Hassam was first inspired to paint his seminal flag series following the Preparedness Parade of May 13, 1916. This parade was the first important public demonstration of the United States' involvement with Europe just prior to the nation's entry into the War in April 1917. Spanning from 23rd Street to 58th Street along Fifth Avenue in New York, the parade lasted almost thirteen hours and more than 137,000 civilian marchers participated. At the time, Hassam’s studio was located in close proximity to the end of the parade route at 130 West 57th Street, and the artist recounted some years later, “I painted the flag series after we went to 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” (interview by Dewitt McClellan Lockman, 2 February 1927, quoted in I.S. Fort, op. cit.,1988, p. 8).
In May 1917, the streets of New York were festooned with not only American flags, but also the flags of Great Britain and France during the visits of their Allied war commissioners. Fort explains, “New York gave each commissioner an official welcome that included receptions and parades and decorated the city in their honor…The entire month of May was devoted to celebrating Anglo-French-American cooperation” (ibid., p. 46). Hassam painted what is acknowledged to be his “most famous flag painting” (ibid.), Allies Day, May 1917 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), to celebrate the three nations’ collaboration. The artist stated, “I want the picture dedicated to the British and French nations commemorating the coming together of the three peoples in the fight for Democracy” (W. Adelson, J.E. Cantor and W.H. Gerdts, op. cit., 1999, p. 218). Hassam featured the three flags of the U.S., Britain and France side by side in multiple other works from the series, including Avenue of the Allies (1917, Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, Savannah, Georgia) and The Union Jack, April Morning (1918, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.).
In the present version, the three national banners particularly dominate the scene, appearing enormous relative to the crowds below. At the same time, the composition seems to place the viewer nearer to the marching parade when compared to other works in the series, which employ an increasingly birds-eye perspective. Fort explains that Hassam possibly “began some of the images—those with a perspective at or near ground level—from a stationary cab or motor bus. In an 1892 interview he expressed his fondness for painting city streets from a cab, explaining that it enabled him to get close to the pedestrians” (I.S. Fort, op. cit., p. 91).
Hassam underscores the feeling of being at the center of the parade activity through his particularly vibrant application of paint. Indeed, describing The Big Parade, Fort writes, “Its handling is much bolder than that of any of the other flag paintings. The artist delineated the buildings on the left side by long stripes of brilliant red, white, and blue paint.” (ibid.) The flags are the most finely detailed elements of the scene, further drawing the eye amidst the energetic, expressive brushwork of the crowd and surrounding buildings. The work also stands out for being painted in a smaller, gem-like scale atop a dark ground, also seen in the Telfair Academy’s Avenue of the Allies and Princeton University Art Museum’s Rainy Day, Fifth Avenue, 1916. These variations in approach “possibly reflect experimentation Hassam was pursuing in the winter of 1916-1917” (ibid., p. 51).
While Hassam directly references collaboration between America and France with the flags in the current work, his flag series also likely draws inspiration from the work of the French Impressionists. Hassam’s interest in flag subjects first began during his years in France in the late 1880s when he saw Bastille Day banners displayed in the Montmartre area where he lived. Hassam explored the theme in both watercolor and oil paintings, following in the tradition of Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro’s parade pictures. The lingering influence of the French Impressionist style can be seen throughout Hassam's flag series and is evident in the vivid, broken brushwork of the present work.
A contemporary critic proclaimed, “Mr. Hassam has done for the flag what Monet did for the haystack—shown it under all conceivable conditions of atmosphere and made beautiful by the caress of light” (quoted in H. Barbara Weinberg, “Hassam in New York, 1897-1919” in Childe Hassam: American Impressionist, New York, 2004, p. 217). Indeed, The Big Parade is a spirited work from Childe Hassam’s most acclaimed series, preserving with fervor and spirit the essential themes of democracy, liberty and international collaboration. As Dr. William H. Gerdts declares of Hassam’s flag series, “It was in these works that he was able to give the modern cityscape patriotic and spiritual resonance. This pictorial sequence constitutes one of the greatest achievements of American art” (W. Adelson, J.E. Cantor and W.H. Gerdts, “Three Themes: For God and Country” op. cit., 1999, p. 222).
Hassam was first inspired to paint his seminal flag series following the Preparedness Parade of May 13, 1916. This parade was the first important public demonstration of the United States' involvement with Europe just prior to the nation's entry into the War in April 1917. Spanning from 23rd Street to 58th Street along Fifth Avenue in New York, the parade lasted almost thirteen hours and more than 137,000 civilian marchers participated. At the time, Hassam’s studio was located in close proximity to the end of the parade route at 130 West 57th Street, and the artist recounted some years later, “I painted the flag series after we went to 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” (interview by Dewitt McClellan Lockman, 2 February 1927, quoted in I.S. Fort, op. cit.,1988, p. 8).
In May 1917, the streets of New York were festooned with not only American flags, but also the flags of Great Britain and France during the visits of their Allied war commissioners. Fort explains, “New York gave each commissioner an official welcome that included receptions and parades and decorated the city in their honor…The entire month of May was devoted to celebrating Anglo-French-American cooperation” (ibid., p. 46). Hassam painted what is acknowledged to be his “most famous flag painting” (ibid.), Allies Day, May 1917 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), to celebrate the three nations’ collaboration. The artist stated, “I want the picture dedicated to the British and French nations commemorating the coming together of the three peoples in the fight for Democracy” (W. Adelson, J.E. Cantor and W.H. Gerdts, op. cit., 1999, p. 218). Hassam featured the three flags of the U.S., Britain and France side by side in multiple other works from the series, including Avenue of the Allies (1917, Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, Savannah, Georgia) and The Union Jack, April Morning (1918, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.).
In the present version, the three national banners particularly dominate the scene, appearing enormous relative to the crowds below. At the same time, the composition seems to place the viewer nearer to the marching parade when compared to other works in the series, which employ an increasingly birds-eye perspective. Fort explains that Hassam possibly “began some of the images—those with a perspective at or near ground level—from a stationary cab or motor bus. In an 1892 interview he expressed his fondness for painting city streets from a cab, explaining that it enabled him to get close to the pedestrians” (I.S. Fort, op. cit., p. 91).
Hassam underscores the feeling of being at the center of the parade activity through his particularly vibrant application of paint. Indeed, describing The Big Parade, Fort writes, “Its handling is much bolder than that of any of the other flag paintings. The artist delineated the buildings on the left side by long stripes of brilliant red, white, and blue paint.” (ibid.) The flags are the most finely detailed elements of the scene, further drawing the eye amidst the energetic, expressive brushwork of the crowd and surrounding buildings. The work also stands out for being painted in a smaller, gem-like scale atop a dark ground, also seen in the Telfair Academy’s Avenue of the Allies and Princeton University Art Museum’s Rainy Day, Fifth Avenue, 1916. These variations in approach “possibly reflect experimentation Hassam was pursuing in the winter of 1916-1917” (ibid., p. 51).
While Hassam directly references collaboration between America and France with the flags in the current work, his flag series also likely draws inspiration from the work of the French Impressionists. Hassam’s interest in flag subjects first began during his years in France in the late 1880s when he saw Bastille Day banners displayed in the Montmartre area where he lived. Hassam explored the theme in both watercolor and oil paintings, following in the tradition of Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro’s parade pictures. The lingering influence of the French Impressionist style can be seen throughout Hassam's flag series and is evident in the vivid, broken brushwork of the present work.
A contemporary critic proclaimed, “Mr. Hassam has done for the flag what Monet did for the haystack—shown it under all conceivable conditions of atmosphere and made beautiful by the caress of light” (quoted in H. Barbara Weinberg, “Hassam in New York, 1897-1919” in Childe Hassam: American Impressionist, New York, 2004, p. 217). Indeed, The Big Parade is a spirited work from Childe Hassam’s most acclaimed series, preserving with fervor and spirit the essential themes of democracy, liberty and international collaboration. As Dr. William H. Gerdts declares of Hassam’s flag series, “It was in these works that he was able to give the modern cityscape patriotic and spiritual resonance. This pictorial sequence constitutes one of the greatest achievements of American art” (W. Adelson, J.E. Cantor and W.H. Gerdts, “Three Themes: For God and Country” op. cit., 1999, p. 222).