Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
Allies Day, May 1917
- Artist
- Frederick Childe Hassam (1859–1935)
- Date
- 1917
- Dimensions
- 92.7 x 76.8 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., United States
Allies Day, May 1917 shows New York's Fifth Avenue decked out with the flags of the United States, Britain and France, celebrating America's entry into the First World War alongside the Allies.
A closer look
Seen from a high viewpoint, the avenue becomes a canyon of fluttering banners, their reds, whites and blues painted in lively, broken strokes that capture the movement of the fabric in the spring breeze. Below, the crowds and traffic are reduced to small dabs of colour. Hassam painted around thirty 'flag paintings' between 1916 and 1919, recording the patriotic fervour of the war years in the Impressionist style he had learned in Paris. This one was painted during the visit of a British and French delegation in May 1917.