Reading visual art: 135 Flags B

From their military and maritime origins, flags steadily became symbols of nationhood. This is best seen in the case of France’s tricolour.

Léon Cogniet (1794–1880), July 1830, or The Flags (study) (1830), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Orléans, France. Wikimedia Commons.

Léon Cogniet’s July 1830, or The Flags (study) (1830) ranks as one of the lesser-known gems of the century. The current tricolour had been officially adopted as the French national flag in 1794, but then fell into disuse. Cogniet’s rough brushstrokes here show the transformation of the white flag of the French monarchy into the tricolour, in its violent restoration of the July Revolution of 1830 by King Louis-Philippe.

Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), Liberty Leading the People (1830), oil on canvas, 260 x 325 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Wikimedia Commons.

Its most famous depiction is in Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People also from 1830. Marianne, the personification of the French nation, assumes the role of standard-bearer, where she represents the liberty achieved by the July Revolution of 1830.

Honoré Daumier (1808–1879), The Republic (1848), oil on canvas, 73 x 60 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Wikimedia Commons.

Honoré Daumier later preferred to personify the French nation as a mother nursing children and holding the French tricolour flag, in The Republic (1848). In this, she sums up the ideal of a strong republic, in her fertility, serenity, and glory, as a development of Delacroix’s Marianne.

Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (1815–1891), The Siege of Paris (1870), oil on canvas, 53.5 x 70.5 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Wikimedia Commons.

Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier’s romanticised view of The Siege of Paris from 1870 combines almost every symbol relevant to the city’s distress, dressing Marianne in a lionskin, against a battle-worn flag. Meissonier had originally been attached to the staff of Napoleon III, and accompanied him in early phases of the war in Italy. During the siege of Paris, though, he was a Colonel commanding an improvised infantry unit, and knew well the realities of combat.

Christian Krohg (1852–1925), 17th of May 1893 (c 1893), further details not known. Wikimedia Commons.

As other countries achieved nationhood in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, their flags became a focus. Christian Krohg’s 17th of May 1893 was a bold statement about Norway’s nationhood. The seventeenth of May had been increasingly celebrated as Constitution Day since the signing of the national constitution in 1814. Not only is this painting full of the Norwegian people, but the Norwegian flag shown lacks the ‘herring salad’ badge marking the union of Norway with Sweden, a clear sign of Krohg’s feelings about independence.

Edward Moran (1829–1901), The Statue of Liberty Unveiled (1886), media and dimensions not known, Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY. Wikimedia Commons.

The Statue of Liberty, showing the Roman goddess of liberty, is a monument to American independence given by the French nation. Its unveiling and dedication on 28 October 1886 is recorded well in Edward Moran’s painting, where the right edge is filled with French and US flags.

Frederick Childe Hassam (1859-1935), The Fourth of July, 1916 (1916), oil on canvas, 91.4 x 66.4 cm, Private collection. WikiArt.

During the First World War, the US held flag parades, then known as Preparedness Parades, as part of the war relief effort. Frederick Childe Hassam’s Fourth of July, 1916 is one of a series he started to promote them.

Some flags have been adopted by international movements, most notably the red flag of socialism.

Eugène Laermans (1864–1940), An Evening’s Strike, or The Red Flag (1893), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België / Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium. Wikimedia Commons.

A general strike to demand universal male suffrage was called in Belgium, starting on the evening of 11 April 1893, as depicted in Eugène Laermans’ An Evening’s Strike, or The Red Flag (1893). Instead of a small group of workers, the whole population, men, women and children, are on the march, and the distant factories have fallen silent.

Artist not known, The Miners’ Strike in Pas-de-Calais (c 1906), illustration published in Le Petit Journal, 1 April 1906, dimensions and location not known. Wikimedia Commons.

This fine anonymous illustration from Le Petit Journal of 1 April 1906 shows continuing unrest in the coalfields of northern France, here in The Miners’ Strike in Pas-de-Calais. Attention is drawn to the increasing strength and politicisation of strikers and their families, as they stride forward under numerous red banners, and the growing socialist movement across Europe.

Édouard Detaille (1848–1912), The Armistice of 28th January 1871 (1873), media and dimensions not known, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, Germany. Wikimedia Commons.

Édouard Detaille’s depiction of The Armistice of 28th January 1871 (1873) shows the moment that the symbolic white flag was raised, over a bleak plain, marking the end of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.

I finish with some flags whose meaning is even more obvious.

Philip de Koninck (1619–1688), River Landscape (1676), oil on canvas, 92.5 x 112 cm, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Wikimedia Commons.

In Philip de Koninck’s River Landscape from 1676, a horseman has stopped to speak to a couple at the roadside at the left, a couple are walking further down the road, and there’s a posh pleasure boat making its way along the river at the right, its large blue flag hanging limp in the still air.

Alfred Sisley (1839-1899), Regatta at Molesey (1874), oil on canvas, 66 x 91.5 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris. EHN & DIJ Oakley.

The most famous of Alfred Sisley’s paintings from his first trip to England is this of a Regatta at Molesey (1874), one of the gems of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. The three flags in the foreground are, from left to right, the Union Jack of the UK, the Royal Standard of the reigning monarch, and the White Ensign, now flown exclusively by the Royal Navy.

Paul César Helleu (1859–1927), Le Grand Pavois (c 1901), oil on canvas, 65.2 x 81.3 cm, Private collection. The Athenaeum.

Paul César Helleu’s Le Grand Pavois (c 1901) uses the French term for what in English is called dressed overall, and refers to the naval tradition of displaying a rich variety of flags as a mark of celebration or recognition. This shows the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes, and would have taken place during the annual Cowes Week racing, perhaps to welcome the monarch. If painted in the summer of 1901, that would have been for the as-yet uncrowned King Edward VII, whose mother, Queen Victoria, had died that January at Osborne House, her palace on the opposite bank of the River Medina.

Paul César Helleu (1859–1927), The Artist’s Yacht, the Port of Sanville (1913), oil on canvas, 81 x 65 cm, Private collection. The Athenaeum.

Helleu’s The Artist’s Yacht, the Port of Sanville (1913) shows two grand yachts in a port I have been unable to trace, surprisingly. Either would attest amply to Helleu’s opulence. He was an early friend of Coco Chanel, the fashion designer, perfumier, and businesswoman. It was Helleu who advised her to adopt beige as a signature colour, and his son and grandson worked as her artistic directors. No wonder they have put the flags out.