This magnificent work by Johns, until now retained by the artist, is the first of his paintings to enter the Museum's collection. It is the largest of his flag paintings and the first in which the flag is presented in monochrome. The lush reticence of the work perfectly exemplifies Johns's early style. The fast-setting medium of encaustic enabled the artist to make each brush stroke distinct, while the forty-eight-star flag design—contiguous with the perimeters of the canvas—provided a structure for the richly varied surface, which ranges from translucent to opaque. White Flag is painted on three separately stretched panels of cotton fabric: the star area, the seven upper stripes to the right of the stars, and the longer stripes below. Johns worked on each panel separately. After applying a ground of unbleached beeswax, he built up the stars, the negative areas around them, and the stripes with applications of collage: cut or torn pieces of newsprint, other papers, and bits of fabric. He dipped these into molten beeswax and adhered them to the surface. He then joined the three panels and overpainted them with more beeswax mixed with pigments, adding touches of white oil.