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CHILDE HASSAM [1859

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CHILDE HASSAM [1859 1935] Allies Day, May 1917, c.1917 Frederick Childe Hassam (October 17, 1859 August 27, 1935) was a prominent and prolific American ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: CHILDE HASSAM [1859

1
CHILDE HASSAM 18591935

Allies Day, May 1917,
c.1917

Frederick Childe Hassam (October 17, 1859
August 27, 1935) was a prominent and prolific
American Impressionist painter, noted for his
urban and coastal scenes.

Hassam was instrumental in promulgating
Impressionism to American collectors, dealers,
and the museums.

He produced over 3,000 paintings, watercolors,
etchings, and lithographs in his career.
His most famous works are the Flag paintings,
completed during World War I.

6
Impressionism

A theory or style of painting originating and
developed in France during the 1870s,
characterized by concentration on the immediate
visual impression produced by a scene and by the
use of unmixed primary colors and small strokes
to simulate actual reflected light.

7
School of Painting

A style of painting that concentrates on the
general tone and effect produced by a subject,
without elaboration of details.
French artists Monet and Renoir were
practitioners of impressionism.

Early Impressionist painters were radicals in
their time, breaking many of the rules of picture
making that had been set by earlier generations.

Up until the Impressionists, history had been the
accepted source of subject matter for paintings,
but Impressionists looked instead to the many
subjects in life around them.
In doing so, they rejected attempts to portray
ideal beauty, and instead sought the natural
beauty of their surroundings at a given moment.

They captured a fresh and original vision that
often seemed strange and unfinished to the
general public, but which, in our own times, has
become much beloved.
Sometimes they painted out of doors rather than
in a studio as had been the previous custom.
This enabled them to observe nature more directly
and to capture the fleeting characteristics of
the moment, especially the momentary and
transient aspects of sunlight.

"Classic" Impressionist paintings are often easy
to spot.
Short, "broken" brush strokes of pure, untinted
and unmixed colors give the appearance of
spontaneity and vitality for which these
paintings are so noted.

The surfaces of these paintings are often highly
textured with thick paint, a characteristic which
clearly sets them apart from their predecessors
in which smooth blending minimized the perception
that one was looking at paint on canvas.
Compositions are simplified and innovative, and
the emphasis is upon overall effect rather than
upon details.

Early Impressionist painters were radicals in
their time, breaking many of the rules of picture
making that had been set by earlier generations.

Up until the Impressionists, history had been the
accepted source of subject matter for paintings.
Impressionists looked instead to the many
subjects in life around them. In doing so, they
rejected attempts to portray ideal beauty, and
instead sought the natural beauty of their
surroundings at a given moment.

They captured a fresh and original vision that
often seemed strange and unfinished to the
general public, but which, in our own times, has
become much beloved.
Sometimes they painted out of doors, In Fresh
Air rather than in a studio as had been the
previous custom.
This enabled them to observe nature more directly
and to capture the fleeting characteristics of
the moment, especially the momentary and
transient aspects of sunlight.

The surfaces of these paintings are often highly
textured with thick paint, a characteristic which
clearly sets them apart from their predecessors
in which smooth blending minimized the perception
that one was looking at paint on canvas.
Compositions are simplified and innovative, and
the emphasis is upon overall effect rather than
upon details.

23
Hassams Washington Arch in Washington Square
Park, c. 1893

At the time when Impressionism emerged in France
in the late 19th century, there was a renewed
interest among artists (although not within the
official art establishment) in everyday subject
matter, however, this time there was a new twist.

25
Photography

Photography was beginning to come into its own,
and its output was becoming more and more candid
as the technology improved in portability.
Impressionists were inspired to seek more than
ever to capture the moment, not only in the
fleeting lights of a landscape, but in the
day-to-day lives of people.

26
The Start of the WW I

World War I began on July 28, 1914, when
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
This seemingly small conflict between two
countries spread rapidly soon, Germany, Russia,
Great Britain, and France were all drawn into the
war, largely because they were involved in
treaties that obligated them to defend certain
other nations.
Western and eastern fronts quickly opened along
the borders of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

27
The first month of combat

Consisted of bold attacks and rapid troop
movements on both fronts.
In the west, Germany attacked first Belgium and
then France.
In the east, Russia attacked both Germany and
Austria-Hungary.
In the south, Austria-Hungary attacked Serbia.

Following the Battle of the Marne (September 59,
1914), the western front became entrenched in
central France and remained that way for the rest
of the war.
The fronts in the east also gradually locked into
place.

29
The Ottoman Empire

Late in 1914, the Ottoman Empire
( Formed Turkey after the war) was brought
into the fray as well, after Germany tricked
Russia into thinking that Turkey had attacked it.
As a result, much of 1915 was dominated by
Allied actions against the Ottomans in the
Mediterranean.

First, Britain and France launched a failed
attack on the Dardanelles.
This campaign was followed by the British
invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula.
Britain also launched a separate campaign against
the Turks in Mesopotamia.

Although the British had some successes in
Mesopotamia, the Gallipoli campaign and the
attacks on the Dardanelles resulted in British
defeats.

32
Trench Warfare

The middle part of the war, 1916 and 1917, was
dominated by continued trench warfare in both the
east and the west.
Soldiers fought from dug-in positions, striking
at each other with machine guns, heavy artillery,
and chemical weapons. Though soldiers died by the
millions in brutal conditions, neither side had
any substantive success or gained any advantage.

33
The United States Entrance and Russias Exit

Despite the stalemate on both fronts in Europe,
two important developments in the war occurred in
1917.
In early April, the United States, angered by
attacks upon its ships in the Atlantic, declared
war on Germany.
Then, in November, the Bolshevik Revolution
prompted Russia to pull out of the war.

34
The End of the War and Armistice

Although both sides launched renewed offensives
in 1918 in an all-or-nothing effort to win the
war, both efforts failed.
The fighting between exhausted, demoralized
troops continued to plod along until the Germans
lost a number of individual battles and very
gradually began to fall back.

A deadly outbreak of influenza, meanwhile, took
heavy tolls on soldiers of both sides.
Eventually, the governments of both Germany and
Austria-Hungary began to lose control as both
countries experienced multiple mutinies from
within their military structures.

36
WWI Ends

The war ended in the late fall of 1918, after the
member countries of the Central Powers signed
armistice agreements one by one.
Germany was the last, signing its armistice on
November 11, 1918.

As a result of these agreements, Austria-Hungary
was broken up into several smaller countries.
Germany, under the Treaty of Versailles, was
severely punished with hefty economic
reparations, territorial losses, and strict
limits on its rights to develop militarily.

38
Germany After the War

Many historians, in hindsight, believe that the
Allies were excessive in their punishment of
Germany and that the harsh Treaty of Versailles
actually planted the seeds of World War II,
rather than foster peace.

The treatys declaration that Germany was
entirely to blame for the war was a blatant
untruth that humiliated the German people.
Furthermore, the treaty imposed steep war
reparations payments on Germany, meant to force
the country to bear the financial burden of the
war.

Although Germany ended up paying only a small
percentage of the reparations it was supposed to
make, it was already stretched financially thin
by the war, and the additional economic burden
caused enormous resentment.
Ultimately, extremist groups, such as the Nazi
Party, were able to exploit this humiliation and
resentment and take political control of the
country in the decades following.

41
Allies Defined

Allies are people, groups, or nations that have
joined together in an association for mutual
benefit or to achieve some common purpose,
whether or not explicit agreement has been worked
out between them.
When the term is used in the context of war or
armed struggle, such associations may also be
called Allied Powers, especially when discussing
World War I or World War II.

One month after the United States officially
entered the First World War, the city of New York
festooned Fifth Avenue with flags.

As a welcoming gesture to the British and French
war commissioners, the Stars and Stripes hung
alongside the Union Jack and the French tricolor
to create a patriotic pattern of red, white, and
blue.

45
1917 US American Flag

46
1917 Union Jack Flag United Kingdom

47
French Tricolor Flag

Childe Hassam, an American of British descent who
had studied and worked in Paris, took personal
pride in the new military alliance.

Allies Day, May 1917 is not Hassams only flag
painting, but it quickly became (and has
remained) the most famous of the ensemble.
Color reproductions of it were sold to benefit
the war effort.
Americans wanted copies of this painting because
it was beautiful art and to show support for
America and its allies as they joined them in the
war.

Describe the brushstrokes in this painting?

They can be distinguished separately, as if the
artist has just made them.
They are not blended together to make a smooth
surface and are of different sizes.

Find the church tower.
Where are the trees in Central Park?
What is happening in the street?

Locate several United States flags,
Two British Union Jacks,
Three French Tricolors, and
A red flag with a small Union Jack on it that
represents Canada.

Where are the shadows and what color are they?

They are under projecting parts of the buildings
and in the street,
and they are blue.

57
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58

Hassam began the series in 1916, when thousands
of Americans demonstrated support for the Allied
cause by marching up Fifth Avenue in the
Preparedness Parade.

Moved by this and other war-related ceremonies,
he eventually produced some thirty views of New
York streets bedecked in banners.

Because Hassam was influenced by French
Impressionism, he was naturally drawn to the
sun-struck spectacle of those colorful,
celebratory occasions.

But the flag paintings transcend the pageantry to
express Hassams conviction about the moral and
financial supremacy of the United States.

Although it may appear as casual as a snapshot,
Allies Day is meticulously composed.

To paint it, Hassam set up his easel on the
balcony of a building at the corner of Fifth
Avenue and Fifty-second Street, which allowed a
view of springtime foliage north toward Central
Park.

Flags are everywhere, but they cluster on the
right and bottom edges of the canvas, making a
colorful frame for the buildings lining the west
side of the avenue.

In the immediate foreground the emblems of the
Allied nations hang neatly in a row (the Union
Jack appears on the Red Ensign, the unofficial
flag of Canada) to establish the theme that
Hassam varies and repeats.

With different patterns but matching colors, the
flags represent the harmony of three nations
joined in a single causethe Fight for
democracy, as Hassam himself defined his
paintings significance.

But in this flurry of symbolic meaning, only one
banner hangs entirely clear of other flags and
flagpoles.

Hassams contemporaries would have instantly
recognized his purpose in placing the Stars and
Stripes at the pinnacle of the composition, set
against a cloudless sky.

If Allies Day portrays a historic occasion and
symbolizes the nationalistic temper of the times,
it also offers a telling description of landmarks
on Fifth Avenue, known at the time as
Millionaires Row.

The façades are all bathed in morning sunlight,
but the brightest façade in the row, Saint Thomas
Church, is also the newest, constructed in the
Gothic-revival style and consecrated only the
year before this work was painted.

Beyond it stands the University Club, recalling a
Renaissance palazzo, beside an expensive hotel
called the Gotham (now the Peninsula). Next to
it, just barely visible, is the sloping façade of
the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Many of the flags point toward these buildings as
if to identify them as the subject of the
picture all served the richest, most prominent
members of New York society, linking them to the
nations prosperity.

Hassam may have featured the two ecclesiastic
structuresparticularly Saint Thomas, which
gleams in the sunlightin order to suggest that
the new alliance of the United States with the
Old World nations of Britain and France had even
won divine approval.

As Hassams most patriotic picture, Allies Day,
May 1917 became instantly famous through the sale
of color reproductions to benefit the war effort.

The flag paintings were exhibited together for
the first time four days after the armistice was
declared in November 1918, to document the story
of the American entry into the Great War and to
commemorate its victorious conclusion.

82
Celia Thaxter's Garden c. 1890