This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Showing an early talent for art, George Flagg moved with his family from New Haven, Connecticut to Charleston, South Carolina when he was eight years old and was already "demonstrating his strong artistic tendencies." At first his family discouraged him, but the portrait he did of Bishop John England was so admired that study for Flagg was arranged with itinerant painter, James Bowman who was working in Charleston.
In 1831, Bowman went to Boston, and the sixteen-year old Flagg went with him with the goal of studying with Washington Allston, whose widowed mother was married to George Flagg's father. Flagg spent three years under the tutelage of Allston, and using his talents and study with Allston to become a portraitist and also history painter, established his own studio. He exhibited at the Boston Atheneum in 1831, 1832 and 1833, and then moved to New Haven, where his family had re-settled from South Carolina.
In 1834, Flagg began exhibiting at the National Academy of Design with three paintings: Murder of the Princes in the Tower, Falstaff Playing King, and Portrait of a Lady Sleeping, all of which are in the collection of the New York Historical Society. Luman Reed, prominent New York patron of the arts, purchased the paintings and arranged for Flagg to study in Europe. In 1834 and 1835, he studied in France and England, and re-paid Reed by giving him history paintings.
Returning to America, Flagg traveled extensively including to Charleston, Boston, New York and New Haven. He did many portraits including a Cabinet portrait of Allston, and exhibited in the National Academy exhibitions of 1842 and 1843. He was elected to honorary Academy membership in 1843, but 'strangely' was assigned the category of 'amateur', perhaps because he was not yet a resident of New York City. The following year, correction was made to 'professional'. His focus on paintings regarded as less than 'high art' and the Academy's acceptance of this deviation is indicated by the fact that of the thirty-two paintings he showed at the Academy to 1851, only four were portraits. "All the others were fancy pictures, scenes from literature, or ideal subjects."
In 1851, Flagg was voted to full Academy membership. That year he moved to Charleston for the next eight years and had a successful career as a portraitist, although he continued painting some 'ideal' subjects. In 1859, when Civil War seemed unavoidable, Flagg left for London, where he stayed until 1866. Returning to the United States, he went to New Haven, and from there sent exhibition entries to the National Academy in 1866, 1867, 1881, 1883 and 1885.
He did portrait painting locally, conducted an art school, and does not appear to have exhibited much of anywhere else except the National Academy. In 1879, he retired to Nantucket Island.
Source:
Jonathan P. Harding, Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of the National Academy of Design, 1826-1925. (David Dearinger, Editor)
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