"Oh, say can you see," the flag in art

by Katrina Kuntz
photo by

Maybe Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag, maybe she didn’t. What really matters is how stars and stripes, together with red, white, and blue, have come to represent a national and political identity as well as a certain sense of tradition and value. As Anne Wagner, art historian and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, argued in her lecture “Our Flag Was Still There: Nationalism, Hegemony, Jasper Johns,” on November 3, 2005, at the Art Institute of Chicago, the flag’s tension as image and as sign can’t be reconciled. Old Glory waves as a functioning design and, with increasing regularity, as a decorative sign.

Many artists have used the Stars and Stripes in their practice; there are artists whose lifeworks are devoted to the flag. As a loaded symbol, the flag represents both the good and bad of American hegemony. The following is a list, by no means conclusive, of the most recognized instances of the American flag in art.

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, “Washington Crossing the Delaware” (1851), oil on canvas

Possibly the most recognized 19th century American painting, the image depicts General George Washington and his revolutionary troops crossing the Delaware River in 1776. Leutze, however, painted the famous scene in Germany, using the Rhine as a stand-in for the Delaware and German soldiers for models.

Henry Peters Gray, “The Birth of Our Flag (a.k.a. Origin of the American Flag)”
(1874), oil on canvas

Charles Weisgerber, “The Birth of Our Nation’s Flag”
(1893), oil on canvas

According to one of her grandsons, Betsy Ross was commissioned by George Washington, John Ross, and Robert Morris, representatives of the Continental Congress, to sew the flag, based on a design in Washington’s possession in 1776. Historians have not been able to validate the relative’s claims. On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act establishing the 13 stripes, alternating red and white, and 13 stars in a field of blue representing the Union.

Jennie Brownscombe, “Examining the Flag” (early 20th century), oil on canvas

Paul Strand, “Fifth Avenue, New York, 1915”
(1915), platinum print

Childe Hassam, “The Fourth of July, 1916 (The Greatest Display of the American Flag Ever Seen in New York, Climax of the Preparedness Parade in May)” (1916), oil on canvas
Hassam painted over 23 paintings in a series of flag paintings, based on the patriotic displays on Manhattan streets.

James Montgomery Flagg, “I Want You for the US Army” (1917), lithograph
Flagg himself called this image of Uncle Sam “the most famous poster in the world.”

Grant Wood, “Daughters of Revolution” (1932), oil on canvas
In Wood’s famous satire, Leutze’s “Washington Crossing the Delaware” hangs behind three elderly women.

Gordon Parks, “American Gothic” (1942), photograph
While working for the Farm Security Administration, Parks photographed Mrs. Ella Watson, a black woman who mopped floors for the government, posed with a mop and broom in front of the flag.

Norman Rockwell, “Liberty Girl” (1943), lithograph

Joe Rosenthal, “Soldiers Hoist the Stars and Stripes at Iwo Jima, February 23, 1945” (1945), photograph

Guy Carleton Wiggins,
“New York Winter”
(1948), oil on canvas

Robert Frank, “The Americans: Hoboken, New Jersey”
(1955), photograph
In 1955, on a grant received from the Guggenheim Foundation, Robert Frank set out on a two-year journey across the country to observe and document the truly American.

Jasper Johns, “Three Flags” (1958), encaustic on canvas
Thinking of the use of the American flag in art immediately calls Johns to mind.

Larry Rivers, “Last Civil War Veteran” (1961), oil on canvas

Tom Wesselmann, “Still Life #28” (1963), photograph

Elaine Sturtevant, “Johns’s Flag Above White Ground” (1967-68), oil on canvas
Sturtevant replicates other artists’ work, here one of Johns’s most famous paintings.

Gary Winogrand, “Hard-Hat Rally, 1969” (1969), gelatin silver print

James Rosenquist, “Flamingo Capsule” (1970), oil on canvas with aluminized mylar

Wayne Eagleboy, “We the People” (1971), acrylic paint and barbed wire on buffalo hide
Two Native-American men sit behind a barrier of barbed wire in Eagleboy’s version of the flag. More and more frequently in art, the flag is used as a symbol to deride American values and systems.

Robert Colescott, “George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from an American History Textbook” (1975), acrylic on canvas
Colescott replaced the figures of Leutze’s “Washington Crossing the Delaware” with stereotypical black images.

Harry Jackson, “The Flag Bearer” (1983), bronze

Faith Ringgold, “Flag Story Quilt” (1985), acrylic on canvas, dyed, painted and pieced fabric
Ringgold is best known for her painted quilt narratives, in particular this series that has continued for nearly 25 years based upon the American flag. In 1970, she was arrested for desecrating the flag as a participant in The People’s Flag Show at the Judson Memorial Church in New York.

Andrew Wyeth, “Battle Ensign” (1987), tempera on panel

Keith Haring, Untitled
(The US Flag) (1988)

Nam June Paik, “Video Flag Y” (1985-1996), 84 TV sets, 3 video disk players, 8 electric fans, plastic frame

MARCH 2006