All About Our Banner in the Sky by Frederic Edwin Church

Title of Artwork: “Our Banner in the Sky”

Artwork by Frederic Edwin Church

Year Created 1861

Summary of Our Banner in the Sky

Despite its rarity within Church’s body of work, this is one of the artist’s most intimate pieces. According to legend, the year Our Banner in the Sky was built was the year when hostilities between Unionists and Confederates broke out. After dark, the Union flag is formed by a gap in the clouds, with a dead tree in the foreground functioning as temporary flagpole, against a blue, star-filled sky with red light stripes. A blatant visual reference to the American Civil War, without being overdone, gives away Church’s allegiances throughout that battle.

All About Our Banner in the Sky

It’s possible that Church, a native of the Federal-supporting north who spent his formative years in Connecticut before relocating to New York State in 1849, was alluding to a particular moment in the war’s early stages when he wrote this piece. South Carolina’s sea fort, Fort Sumter, was the scene of the war’s opening fight, in which the Union soldiers were routed after a 30-hour siege. However, it has been believed that the war-torn flags and stripes that flew above the fort even after the fight reflect Church’s defiance and faith that a unified America will ultimately triumph.

Church deviated from the typical path of development in his work by presenting such a blatant symbolic conceit. Church, according to art historian Jennifer Raab, “challenging an earlier model of painting based on symbolic unity” as he progressed toward more realistic realism. In this case, Church employs visual metaphor to make a strong political statement, demonstrating the importance to him of the issue and his near-spiritual faith in the eventual unification of his country.