ARTIST: Henry Kurt Stoessel (New York, Colorado, Germany, 1909 - 1984)
NAME: George Washington in Front of Soldiers
MEDIUM: gouache on paper
YEAR: 1933
CONDITION: Excellent. Some wear/damages to edges.
SIGHT SIZE: 21 x 27 inches / 53 x 68 cm
FRAME SIZE: unframed
SIGNED: Lower right
CATEGORY: antique vintage painting
SKU#: 113384
WARRANTY: 7 days returns accepted if item doesn't match description

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The "Grand Old Union Flag" or Continental Colors 1775
According to legend, one day in 1775 General Washington approached Rebecca Flower Young, a Philadelphia pennant and colors maker, and asked her to make a flag for use by the troops. The flag he designed became known as the Grand Union Flag. Years later, Rebecca assisted her daughter in making an even more famous flag for our country, the "Star Spangled Banner" used at Ft. McHenry.
This flag was never officially sanctioned by the Continental Congress, but was in use from late 1775 until mid 1777, probably because it was very simple to make. All one had to do was sew six white strips over the red field of a British Red Ensign. According to legend, on January 1, 1776, this flag was first raised at Cambridge, where George Washington took command of the Continental Army. He personally paid to equip the first 1000 soldiers under this flag. Although this flag was known as the Continental Colors because it represented the entire nation, in one of Washington's letters he referred to it as the "Great Union Flag" and it is most commonly called the "Grand Old Union Flag" today.
Henry Kurt Stoessel (New York, Colorado, Germany, 1909 - 1984)
Henry Kurt Stoessel, born in Chemnitz, Germany, April 17, 1909, is best known as a freelance illustrator. He came to the US in 1910 and became a naturalized citizen in 1971. He was educated at the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Grand Central School, New York. During his career he contributed illustrations to national magazines, served as Art Director for the Society of Illustrators of New York, and produced a series of paintings based on his experiences with the military during the Viet Nam conflict.
His obituary in the New York Times, October 16, 1984, reads "H. Kurt Stoessel, a painter, designer and the president of Stoessel Studios in New York, died of pneumonia Oct. 7 in a nursing home in Boulder, Colo. He was 75 years old and lived in Boulder. Twenty-one of Mr. Stoessel's paintings are in the United States Air Force Museum collection in Washington, DC. The studios, which he owned from 1938 to 1974, specialized in commercial design. Mr. Stoessel is survived by his daughter, Roxana Bartlett of Boulder, and his sister, Marie Templin of Elgin, Ill."