Existing comment:
Attributed to Frederic Edwin Church
Our Banner in the Sky, ca 1861
Frederic Edwin Church studied art with Thomas Cole, from whom he acquired a conception of landscape as both a manifestation of God's creation and a vehicle for the expression of nationalist ideals. This painting, based on an earlier oil sketch by Church, was inspired by the first military engagement of the American Civil War -- the capture of Fort Sumter, South Carolina, by Southern forces in April 1861. Fort Sumter's battle-scarred American flag, displayed at patriotic rallies in the North, quickly became an important propaganda symbol for Union Army recruitment.
Church's patriotic vision rescued the tattered American flag from the ruins of Fort Sumter and resurrected it symbolically in the Northern landscape that served as the favored subject of the Hudson River School artists. By placing the forces of nature in the service of American nationalism, Church invoked divine intervention on behalf of the struggle to preserve the Union. |