Allies Day, May 1917 by Childe Hassam
I should admit choosing just one picture out of dozens is very hard. When I had to look through all the pictures, I didn’t pay attention to what was depicted. I read the time when it was written, I wanted to analyze the time first, then the picture, not on vice versa. And then I saw “Allies Day, May 1917” by Childe Hassam. A picture of a bookmark that I have at home came into my mind immediately. The bookmark is from National Gallery of Art. Though I am not a connoisseur of Art, I thought I could get more interested in it if I chose the picture I wanted to analyze.
When anyone just has a look at the picture, he or she may notice it looks like a blur image. I find it very interesting as as far as I remember, “Allies Day, May, 1917” was the only one picture with such peculiarity. (The only one among those I had to choose). It’s neither a portrait nor a typical picture. It reminds me of old cartoons where the pictures were not of a good quality and the sound could not be heard. So every person who watched it had to add his own perceptions to what is depicted. I guess the same process is going on when anyone sees “Allies Day, May, 1917”.
According to The Collection of National Gallery of Art, Childe Hassan, web, 2011, ”A patriotic whirlwind overtook mid-town Manhattan as America entered the First World War in the spring of 1917”. Here one should open a book on US History or even World History and have a look at the section “The USA in the First World War”. The country did not participate in it. The Civil War was over almost 50 years before the War in 1917-1921. It was just a foray, a sign of an “Allience” for the countries. One sees flags of Great Britain, France and the United States. It’s a symbolic sign of honor to “friends”. The US flag is above on the background, it’s is supposed to be in the middle between the flags of the UK and France. And it is. However, it’s also a little bit higher then the rest. I guess the author wanted to show that his country was and will be higher despite the depression in 30ies, the Second World War and everything that was waiting for it. Here we can definitely see patriotic feelings of the artist.
Speaking about the artist, I should mention Childe Hassam belonged to an impressionistic school. According to the article “Хассам Фредерик Чайлд (17 октября 1859 - 27 августа 1935) - американский художник-импрессионист” on the web page mag.pianotut.ru, Childe Hassam was a member of a group of 10 artists, or “The Ten” who separated from the other American artists in 1898. According to an article “Childe Hassam” on a web page Wikipedia.com, the artist had a chance to study in France, where he was amazingly impressed by local impressionism. According to the article about Childe Hassam on an official web page of National Art Gallery, Childe’s peculiarity is that the artist managed to apply fluid parallel paint strokes to create an architechtonic pattering rather than using daubs of shimmering pigment to dissolve form. Hassam shared his interest in ”bright colors, broken brushwork, and modern themes”. And Childe Hassam distinguished from his contemporaries because of that approach.
Speaking about the influence of the picture on my background of US history and culture, I dare say that, first of all, I am happy that I had a chance to do a research on a picture I wanted to. I think it is very important when a person does what he wants. Secondly, I can say the picture is a rare example of the unison of the flags of France and Britain. Though the French and British were not involved in the process of paintings, Childe Hassam intentionally put them together. I can see the process of globalization, and if you turn to history books capitalism is a key to globalization. My point is that America is a homeland of both capitalism and globalism, which does not necessarily mean bad things. On the contrary, this piece of art is a vivid example of Friendship with a capital “F”. What I would strongly advise to everyone who doesn’t like the US is just a quick look at both this amazingly beautiful picture and a History book. Unison is such thing that is not that easy to achieve. It does not really matter if it’s a picture or a poem, an article or a diplomatic negotiation. There are 3 flags in the picture, 3 great flags that represent 3 great lands. The USSR flag is not here though the country was pretty young, and it was not that powerful to be depicted in the picture. I don’t mean anything wrong or non-patriotic when saying it, it’s just a fact. I can’t say I feel disappointed about it. It’s art. One should admit the Soviet state was not that strong and influential to be painted. Moreover, I think the color gamma is also significant. Blue, red and white, just blue, red and white. Maybe the flag of the Russian Federation could turn out to be appropriate but not the flag of the Russian Empire. However, I do personally believe the yellow-white-black flag must have been given some place in the picture, and not even in the corner. There is nothing political here, just my own understanding.
It was quite interesting for me to find information about the series of paintings called “The Flags”. There are 22 of them, and all of the pictures symbolize the Allies, the Friends of the United States. It is interesting that France and Great Britain have always had a rather tense relationship, though in the picture they are together, united, with the other great flag of the United States.
