Jared B. Flagg (1820-1899)
Oil on canvas, 1891
Gift of the Partnership for New York City, Inc.
NYSM 2003.41.108

Born in Madison County, NY, James Samuel Thomas Stranahan was an astute businessman who began amassing wealth while engaged in railroad construction and public works development in Newark, NJ. In the mid-1840s he relocated to Brooklyn, NY, where, because of his influence in the development of parks and boulevards, he was dubbed the “Baron Haussmann of Brooklyn” in reference to the civic planner whose modifications changed the face of Paris in the 1860s under Napoleon III.

Jared Bradley Flagg was a member of a family of painters and was the nephew and biographer of the artist Washington Allston. In mid-life Flagg was an Episcopal priest for over a decade before resuming his career as a painter. His portrait of Stranahan was painted “from life” and was presented to the New York Chamber of Commerce by the artist’s heirs.