Allies Day, May 1917

1917

Childe Hassam

Artist, American, 1859 - 1935

We look beyond a cluster of flags hanging from the side of one tall building onto a wide street at a row of buildings across from us in this vertical painting. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes, so some details are difficult to make out. We seem to lean out a window to look along the street, so the building to our right only skims the edge of the composition and continues off the top. The three flags closest to us fly from nearly horizontal flagstaffs along the bottom edge of the painting. All the flags are in shades of scarlet red, white, and royal blue. The flag closest to us is red with the red, white, and blue Union Jack in the upper corner. Beyond it is an American flag with 49 stars, and then the French flag with the vertical bands of blue, white, and red. Those three flags are repeated about a dozen times along the building that stretches away from us, along the right edge of the painting. More of those flags are hung from the cream-white and tan buildings across the street, to our left. Some of those buildings reach off the top edge of the canvas and others come close. The shadows along moldings and the windows are painted with pale and lapis blue. Through narrow gaps left between the fluttering flags, vertical strokes of navy blue and violet purple suggest crowds of people in the street below. The sky between the buildings is ice blue. The artist signed and dated the painting in the center left, “Childe Hassam May 17 1917.”

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

This painting commemorates the nation’s entry into World War I in spring 1917. Childe Hassam shows Fifth Avenue in New York City decorated with red, white, and blue flags. It had been declared “the Avenue of the Allies” in honor of the military alliance between the United States, Great Britain, and France.

This is part of a series of flag images in which Hassam used brilliant sunlight and color in the style of the French impressionists. The breezy, celebratory air glosses over the horrors of modern warfare that American soldiers would face fighting in Europe.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 70

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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Sold 1919 through (E. & A. Milch, Inc., New York) to Gilbert E. Rubens [1884-1960], New York, until 1930; (William Macbeth, New York); sold December 1930 to Glenn Ford McKinney [d. 1934], New York; acquired 1934 by his sister, Ethelyn McKinney, Greenwich, Connecticut; gift 1943 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1918

  • Ninety-third Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, 1918, no. 282.

1929

  • Exhibition of a Retrospective Group of Paintings Representative of the Life Work of Childe Hassam, N.A., The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, 1929, no. 109, as St. Thomas' Avenue of the Allies, 1917.

1943

  • Paintings and Watercolors by Childe Hassam, Milch Galleries, New York, 1943, no. 9.

1945

  • Extended loan for use by The White House, Washington, D.C., 1945.

1952

  • Extended loan for use by Blair House, Washington, D.C., 1952-1953.

1953

  • Extended loan for use by The White House, Washington, D.C., 1953-1964.

1965

  • About New York, Night and Day 1915-1965, The Gallery of Modern Art, New York, 1965, unnumbered, p. 17.

1967

  • National Gallery Loan Exhibition, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, 1967, no. 17.

1971

  • French Impressionists Influence American Artists, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, 1971, no. 63.

  • What is American in American Art, M. Knoedler and Co. [benefit exhibition for the Museum of American Folk Art], New York, 1971, no. 99.

1973

  • American Impressionist Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Whitney Musuem of American Art, New York; Cincinnati Art Museum; The North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 1973-1974, no. 35.

1976

  • The American Flag in the Art of Our Country, Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania, 1976, repro. 43.

1977

  • The Ten, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, 1977, repro. 31.

1988

  • The Flag Paintings of Childe Hassam, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth; IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, 1988-1989, no. 8 (cat. by Ilene Fort).

1990

  • American Impressionism: Masterworks from Public and Private Collections in the United States, Villa Favorita, Lugano-Castagnola, Switzerland, 1990, no. 24 (cat. by William Gerdts).

1994

  • American Impression and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth; The Denver Art Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1994-1995, no. 31, fig. 178.

2000

  • Rave Reviews: American Art and Its Critics, 1826-1925, National Academy of Design, New York; Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa; Indianapolis Museum of Art, 2000-2001, no. 67, repro. (shown only in New York).

2004

  • Childe Hassam, American Impressionist, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2004, unnumbered catalogue, fig. 232.

2006

  • Americans in Paris 1860-1900, The National Gallery, London; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2006 - 2007, no. 94.

Bibliography

1918

  • The New York Times (13 March 1918): 11:3.

  • "The National Academy's Ninety-third Annual Exhibition." American Magazine of Art 9 (May 1918): 290, repro. 260.

  • Noyes, Alfred. The Avenue of the Allies and Victory. New York, 1918: frontispiece.

1919

  • The Milch Gallery. Art Notes (April 1919): 9-11.

  • The Milch Gallery. Art Notes (October 1919): 5-6.

1922

  • Pousette-Dart, Nathaniel. Childe Hassam. In Distinguished American Artists. New York, 1922: viii.

1930

  • "Fine Arts Values Again Revealed by Hassam Sale." Art News 29 (13 December 1930): 3.

1938

  • Adams, Adeline. Childe Hassam. New York, 1938: 71-72.

1969

  • Lowe, David G. "The Banner Years." American Heritage 20 (June 1969): 54, repro. 55.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 66, repro.

1973

  • Andrew, John. Saint Thomas Church. New York, 1973: 16, 18, repro. 4.

1978

  • King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 106, pl. 69.

1979

  • Hoopes, Donelson F. Childe Hassam. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1979, p. 82.

1980

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 16, no. 51, color repro.

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 171, repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: color repro. 6, 192.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 568, no. 867, color repro.

1988

  • Fort, Ilene. The Flag Paintings of Childe Hassam. Exh. cat. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988: no. 8, color repro. 46.

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 19-20, 160, 162, no. 57, color repro.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 196, repro.

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 249, repro.

1996

  • Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 283-287, color repro.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 405, no. 335, color repro.

2007

  • Goldin, Marco, ed. America! Storie di pittura dal Nuovo Mondo. 2 vols. Treviso, 2007: 1:337, repro.; 2:138, 143 n. 46.

2016

  • Lubin, David M. Grand Illusions: American Art and the First World War. New York, 2016: 79, color fig. 44

Inscriptions

center left: Childe Hassam / May 17 1917; upper left reverse, in monogram: C.H.; upper right reverse: May 1917

Wikidata ID

Q20192059

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