CHILDE HASSAM
Washington's Birthday, Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street.
Etching, 1916. 323x187 mm; 12¾x7 inches, full margins. Second state (of 2). Signed with the artist's cypher and inscribed "imp" in pencil, lower right. A superb impression of this very scarce etching.We have found only 9 other impressions at auction in the past 30 years.Among Hassam's (1859-1935) signature works of American Impressionism are his paintings from the Flag Series. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which has an oil painting by Hassam from the flag series, "The only major American Impressionist to depict the home front during World War I, Hassam produced his Flag Series, some thirty canvases representing Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue and adjacent streets decorated with patriotic emblems, from 1916 to 1919. For Liberty Loan drives, organized by the United States government to promote the sale of savings bonds, stretches of Fifth Avenue were draped with flags and red-and-white Liberty Loan banners." In addition to the Flag Series oil paintings, Hassam also made several etchings of similar subjects, including this, his grandest view, of New York's Fifth Avenue adorned with flags and looking south toward the Flatiron Building at 23rd Street. Cortissoz/Clayton 68.