Label Text:
This is part of an edition of 117. Childe Hassam is perhaps most renowned for his depictions of the flag-draped streets of New York during the patriotic parades of World War I. Painted between 1916 and 1918, the flag series typifies Hassam's strong national and urban interests as well as his identity with the American impressionist movement. He used the title "Avenue of the Allies" for five of these paintings, a term that originated in September 1918 and refers to Fifth Avenue during the Fourth Liberty Loan Drive, a national fund drive that in New York City reached lavish heights with the display of allied flags. "Our own Fifth Avenue," the president of the Fifth Avenue Association remarked, "the whole city's Fifth Avenue, aye the Nation's Fifth Avenue, now for the time being proudly bearing the name of the 'Avenue of the Allies,' has a privilege and a glory of service in these times which must stir all our hearts."
This lithograph is almost identical to the painting entitled Avenue of the Allies: Brazil, Belgium, also painted in October 1918. It is identifiable as the block between 54th and 55th streets on Fifth Avenue and, like the print, depicts the flag of New Zealand in the foreground with the flags of Brazil and Belgium as the narrative focus. The painting is quite soft and delicate, a cool autumnal atmosphere in a thin, highly impressionistic style. In the print Hassam appears to have opted for a much more linear, energetic composition-one that emphasizes the bustling activity and the architectural weight of the block. Here the high vantage point is typical of impressionist urban scenes and accentuates the depth of field, the grand display of flags, and the masses below out to support the war effort. Although Childe Hassam began making prints near the end of his career, he produced over 350 etchings and forty lithographs. Unlike his paintings his prints did not sell well during his lifetime.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1940.8.20 |
