The Avenue in the Rain

American artist Childe Hassam painted this patriotic scene in February 1917, showing Fifth Avenue decorated with American flags on a rainy day. The flags project into the composition from unseen anchor points, their stripes blurring in the wet atmosphere. Pedestrians with umbrellas move along the sidewalk below.

This is one of about thirty "flag paintings" Hassam created between 1916 and 1919, inspired by a Preparedness Parade he witnessed in 1916. The spectacle of thousands of flags lining city streets moved him deeply. This particular work was painted just weeks before the United States declared war on Germany.

The painting was donated to the White House in 1963 and has hung in the Oval Office under multiple presidents, including Kennedy, Clinton, Obama, and Biden. Hassam, considered the leading American Impressionist, captured both the visual drama of rain and the patriotic fervor of the moment.