On October 17, 1859, American Impressionist painter Childe Hassam was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts. After studying art in Paris, he returned to the United States and became a leading member of The Ten, a group of American painters associated with Impressionism. His paintings captured the shifting light and vibrant energy of coastal New England and bustling urban streets, particularly in New York City.
Beginning in 1916, Hassam created what would become one of his best-known bodies of work: roughly thirty paintings of New York streets decorated with flags and patriotic banners. Inspired by the Preparedness Parade along Fifth Avenue that May, he continued the series through 1919, recording displays that accompanied the nation’s growing involvement in World War I. His quick brushwork and brilliant color turned crowded avenues into shimmering patterns of flags, buildings, and people.
Several paintings depict Fifth Avenue as the “Avenue of the Allies,” its blocks decorated with the flags of Allied nations during the Fourth Liberty Loan Drive in 1918. These displays encouraged the purchase of war bonds, linking the spectacle of the city to the home-front war effort. Hassam’s paintings combined that patriotic purpose with an exploration of light, weather, color, and movement. Now held in major museum collections, they remain vivid records of New York during the Great War.
