James Montgomery Flagg

James Montgomery Flagg was born in Pelham Manor N.Y on June 18, 1977. James Flagg’s parents were Elisha Flagg who was a business man and Anna Elida Coburn. He was an illustrator and a writer for over twenty years and had some very famous art work that people still remember today. Some of the things that will be cover on James Montgomery Flagg are his education/apprenticeship, the culture and society of the time period his work was made, historical design/art precedents that influenced him to do the illustrations that he made, his most significant accomplishments over the years, and subsequent influences that he had on later generations. James Montgomery Flagg had quite a few more famous art works that he made that people don’t really know about.
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James Flagg in 1915

James Montgomery Flagg’s public schools were Dr. Chapin’s School from 1889 to 1891 and then moved to Horace Mann School from 1891 till 1893. Then James went to study at the Art Students League from 1894 till 1898 under John H. Tqachtamn and J. Carroll Beckwith. Than in 1898 he attended Hubert Herkomer’s Art School in Bushey, Hertfordshire, England. James Montgomery Flagg intended to be a portraitist, and continued to paint and draw portraits throughout his career. James says that, “his real education came from the material that passed over the desks of the editors of St. Nicholas, Judge and Life” [ {{52 Anonymous}} ]. At St. Nicholas, Judge and Life James was allowed to study the people working there. With the lessons that he learned from the magazines were more valuable than any of the schooling that he took to learn the things about artistry. James Montgomery Flagg also thinks that he was an artist that felt it in his blood rather than being taught artistry in school. With the culture and society of the time period is that ever since his early boyhood he had been drawing. February 22, 1899 James married Nellie McCormick who was eleven years older than him. After they got marry they move to London and then onto Paris, where Flagg’s portrait of Victor Marec was hung in the Salon of 1900. Over the next four years they traveled extensively in the United States and abroad before they settled down in New York City. “Flagg was a confirmed urbanite, a habitué of the city’s entertainment spots, a founder of the Dutch Treat Club, and a member of the Lambs and Lotos. Gregarious, ready-witted, and outspoken, he reveled in the company of notables, particularly those from the theatrical world, and of beautiful women” [ {{49 Anonymous}} ]. James Flagg supported America in both the World Wars.
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James in Front of one of his paintings One of James Montgomery Flagg’s passions was drawing. All the other traditional pastimes that all the other kids did like, playing sports or hanging out with friends was of no interest to James at all. “Flagg was a rakish fellow whose cocky self-assurance served him well in the highly competitive illustration markets” [ {{52 Anonymous}} ] [ ]. James was an outspoken and frank kind of person and lived a bohemian style of life. After his first wife pasted away in 1923 he was known for his cavorting around town with pals like John Barrymore. “He was close friends with many of his contemporaries: Arthur William Brown, Walter Appleton Clark, Ham Fisher, Rube Goldberg, etc” [ {{52 Anonymous}} ]. James was a member of the Lotos Club, the Players club, the society of Illustrators, and the Artists and Writers Club. The historical design/art precedents that influenced him were his theatrical interests that drew him into motion pictures. In 1920 he was under the sponsorship of Jack Eaton and Eltinge Warner to write his scripts for his twenty-four humorous short films. “He grew up along with the reproduction technology that allowed artists to select the pen as the illustrative tool of choice” [ {{52 Anonymous}} ]. A lot of the techniques that James Montgomery Flagg would draw upon when he was a kid were from Charles Dana Gibson. “Others born within a year of Flagg include Stanley M. Arthurs, Ivan Bilibin, Walter Appleton Clark, Fanny Y. Cory, Frank Leyendecker, Norman Price, Harry Rountree, Frank Schoonoever, Everett Shinn, J. Allen St. John, Sarah Stilwell, and J. Scott Williams” [ {{52 Anonymous}} ]. When Flagg was a teenager he grew up in the company of some of the most respected magazine editors of that time.
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Nervy Nat Comic Strip James Montgomery Flagg’s most significant accomplishments are that when he was young he had a page of his cartooned Latin axioms had appeared in the September 1890 issue of St. Nicholas. In 1893 he was sent by St. Nicholas to report on the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago. At the same time of him doing some work for St. Nicholas he was also contributing to magazines Judge and Life. His deft drawings were increasingly in demand and he became one of the outstanding American illustrators of his time. James Montgomery Flagg was employed by most of the country’s popular periodicals, by contributing painted covers as well as drawings in pen and wash. He also illustrated around 20 different books. Since James was able to produce at least one drawing a day his annual income rose to $75,000. He also contributed articles, columns, and letters to magazines and newspapers.
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Yankee Girls Abroad Photo Between the period of 1900 and when America enters into World War I, Flagg published nine pictures-with-textbooks of his own. Beginning with “Yankee Girls Abroad” in 1900 and concluding with “The Mystery of the Hated Man” in 1916. In 1900, James had a portrait accepted to the Paris Salon. But after that James felt that painting was not his forte and returned to doing illustrations. In January of 1902 Harper’s Monthly issued a magazine with one of his images which was perhaps one of the only works that James did for their magazine. By 1905 James started to illustrate for books again. The very first book that James made illustrations for, when he started to illustrate for books again, was “An Orchard Princess.” The paintings that had his recognizable pen style were Simon the Jester and City People both in 1909, and The Adventures of Kitty Cobb that was published in 1912. The Adventures of Kitty Cobb was a very large book in its day being 12”x12”. The book was a series of plates with a paragraph of text below each illustration. Throughout James Flagg’s teenager years and early 20’s Flagg’s book illustration output was prodigious.
“He was a member of the first Civilian Preparedness Committee organized in New York in 1917 and Chaired by Grosvenor Clarkson. He also served as a member of Charles Dana Gibson’s Committee of Pictorial Publicity, which was organized under the federal government’s Committee on Public Information, headed by George Creel” [ {{51 Anonymous}} ]. In 1918 Governor Charles S. Whitman appointed him as the New York State Military artist, with his most important segment of his work consisted of forth-six war posters that James had produced between 1917 and 1919. James’s most famous poster was for World War I which had the caption “I Want YOU/for U.S. Army,” which had embodied what Flagg’s original conception of Uncle Sam. There were around four million copies of this poster printed during World War I and on top of that another four hundred thousand more were produced during World War II. With all of these copies of the poster made for both the World Wars it made it one of the most Figure [ 5 ]-1
Most Famous Poster undoubtedly best-known American posters of all time. “Upon presenting President Franklin Delano Roosevelt a copy of the poster, Flagg remarked that he had been his own model for Uncle Sam to save the modeling fee. Roosevelt was impressed and replied: ‘I congratulate you on your resourcefulness in saving model hire. Your method suggests Yankee forebears” [ {{51 Anonymous}} ].
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One of James First Illustrations “Official movies were written for the Red Cross and the Marines; and by 1920, under the sponsorship of Jack Eaton and Eltinge Warner, he had written scripts and participated in the making of twenty-four humorous short films” {{49 Anonymous}}. James’s book “Boulevard All the Way—Maybe” in 1925 described his honeymoon with his second wife, Dorothy Virginai Wadman, that was from coast to coast by automobile. James Flagg was elected an honorary life member in 1926 after he wrote the first annual productions for the Dutch Treat Club. After he was elected honorary life member in 1926 he dropped out of his active participation in the Dutch Treat Club. When the Depression hit the Dutch Treat Club had loosened up and James Flagg went back to the club and started his active participation again. “It seems that the more bawdy and risqué and boisterous the organization became, the more Monty wanted to be a part of it” [ {{52 Anonymous}} ]. The early years of World War II the rest of the world started to loosen up with all the risqué photos and the naughtiness started to become not one of James’s fortes to paint anymore. With the year 1950 hit James Flagg wasn’t participating in illustrations for books anymore. “He made posters of the Unites States Department of Forestry, for the later election campaigns of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and for patriotic causes during World War II” [ {{49 Anonymous}} ]. The last book that James did was an autobiography, Roses and Buckshot is 1946. This, drew criticism as a hectically candid effusion, but revealed much of his ebullient personality. James did a lot of drawings for Cosmopolitan serialization of Thank You, Jeeves. James Montgomery Flagg was elected into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fall in 1980, after he passed away in 1960.
James Montgomery Flagg’s pen technique, featuring a skillful use of open hatching, was as personalized as the printed full signature that became his hallmark about 1908. James Flagg was a founded member of the infamous Dutch Treat Club in 1906 and was there president in 1913. This club was a loose association of creative types that turned into an organization still going strong today. Nearly every major publisher has featured James Montgomery Flagg’s art at one time or another.

Works Cited
"Gale Biography In Context - Document " 4/3/2011 <http://libproxy.umflint.edu:5327/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&prodId=BIC1&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE|BT2310013523&mode=view>.
"Gale Biography In Context - Document " 4/3/2011 <http://libproxy.umflint.edu:5327/ic/bic1/MagazinesDetailsPage/MagazinesDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Magazines&prodId=BIC1&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE|A20176660&mode=view>.
"James Montgomery Flagg Biography " 4/3/2011 <http://www.bpib.com/illustra2/flagg2.htm>.
"James Montgomery Flagg Biography " 4/3/2011 <http://www.bpib.com/illustra2/flagg.htm>.
"The Most Famous Poster (Memory): American Treasures of the Library of Congress " 4/3/2011 <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm015.html>.

Illustration Cited
Figure 1-1
"100 Years of Illustration : Flagg, James Montgomery 1877-1960 " 4/18/2011 <http://giam.typepad.com/100_years_of_illustration/james-montgomery-flagg-1877-1960/>.
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"James Montgomery Flagg [Misc.];James Montgomery Flagg - Photo - LIFE " 4/18/2011 <http://www.life.com/image/50450888>.
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"1907 Nervy Nat Comic Strip ~ James Montgomery Flagg, Miscellaneous Ephemera " 4/18/2011 <http://www.atticpaper.com/proddetail.php?prod=nervy-nat-comic-strip-aeronaut>.
Figure 4-1
"James Montgomery Flagg Biography " 4/3/2011 <http://www.bpib.com/illustra2/flagg.htm>.
Figure 5-1
"The Most Famous Poster (Memory): American Treasures of the Library of Congress " 4/3/2011 <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm015.html>.
Figure 6-1
"James Montgomery Flagg Biography " 4/3/2011 <http://www.bpib.com/illustra2/flagg.htm>.