Flagg was born on June 16, 1820 in New Haven, Connecticut. He was a son of Martha Flagg and Henry Collins Flagg, the one time mayor of New Haven. He was the younger brother of artists George Whiting Flagg and Henry Collins Flagg III. The Flagg brothers all studied painting under their famous uncle, Washington Allston, and received some recognition of their own. In 1836, when he was only sixteen years old, Jared exhibited a portrait of his father in the National Academy and was favorably noticed by the critics.
Career
As a young man, Flagg settled in Hartford, Connecticut. He moved to New York in 1849 and was soon elected an academician. Jared pursued the study of theology at intervals with his art, and, in 1854, he entered the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Flagg received the degree of A.M. from Trinity College in 1861, and that of S.T.D. from Columbia University in 1863. Flagg served as an Episcopal minister for a decade, including as Rector of Grace Church, until he resumed the practice of his art. He occasionally painted ideal figure pictures but made portraits his specialty. Among Flagg's more notable portraits are of several of the judges of the New York Court of Appeals, including a three-quarter length of Chief Justice Sanford E. Church ; Rhode Island GovernorDaniel Russell Brown ; an 1887 life-size full-length portrait of William M. Evarts ; and William H. Vanderbilt, among others. Other notable paintings by Jared Flagg include Holy Thoughts and Paul before Felix, and Angelo and Isabella. Flagg wrote a biography of his uncle Washington Allston, published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1892.
Notable portraits
Personal life
Flagg was married three times. His first marriage was to Sarah Montague on December 30, 1841. Together, Sarah and Jared were the parents of:
After Sarah's death in 1844, he remarried to Amelia Louisa Hart on December 1, 1846. Amelia was a daughter of Dr. Samuel Hart and Orpha Hart. Her older brother, Samuel Waldo Hart, served as the Mayor of New Britain, Connecticut. Together, Jared and Amelia were the parents of:
Charles Noel Flagg, an artist who married Ellen Fanny Earle, daughter of Morris Earle, in 1874.
Rosalie Allston Flagg, who married William Dexter Jaffray.
After Amelia's death in 1867, he married for the third time to Josephine Bond in 1869. Josephine was a daughter of Lucy Bond and Judge William Key Bond, a former U.S. Representative from Ohio. Flagg died of heart disease on September 25, 1899 at 253 West 42nd Street, his residence in New York City. After a funeral at St. Bartholomew's Church at the corner of 44th Street and Madison Avenue, he was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven.
