William Glackens 1870-1838

By Sophie Turner

Cape Cod Pier, 1908. Oil on canvas, 66 x 81.3 cm. Museum of Art, Nova Southeastern University, Florida.  

From the late Nineteenth Century to the early Twentieth Century, William Glackens brought an impressionist flavour to his American paintings. In his work as both a painter and illustrator, Glackens’ focus upon capturing his environment is evident. Arthur Hoeber suggested that "If Mr. Glackens thus sees his nature, he must enjoy life far more than the ordinarily equipped human, for there is a riot of tone to his vision." Hoeber’s revolutionary language delineates Glackens’ formative role in liberating art from agreed academic conventions, employing a language of bright light and colour to imbue his paintings with a sense of ambient leisure.

Born in Philadelphia on the 13th March 1870, Glackens later studied at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts whilst supporting himself through his work as an artist-journalist for the Philadelphia Press. From his early artistic career, Glackens’ revolt against artistic conventions was evident. Alongside John Sloan, Glackens formed the “Charcoal Club”. The group supplemented their studies by engaging with subject matter and practices, such as nude life-drawing, that were not part of the Academy’s curriculum. Soon after his studies, Sloan introduced Glackens to the painter, Robert Henri. The friendship proved highly influential for the young artist, as Henri introduced him to modern developments in European painting. Spending a year in Europe, Glackens was greatly inspired by the work of Impressionists and Post-Impressionists: painters such as Renoir, Manet and Bonnard.

Moving to New York, Glackens’ work reflects the Impressionists’ depictions of modern Parisian life, with his painting depicting daily life in New York such as Chez Mouquin (1905) and The Shoppers (1908) comparable to Manet’s scenes of modern Paris such as A Bar at the Folies Bergere (1882). This realist interest in representing modern urban life was shared by Glackens’ contemporaries, a group later named the Ashcan school who were known for their gestural brushwork and dark hues. Glackens, Henri and Sloan along with other artists (named collectively by reviewers as “The Eight”) revolted against the Ashcan School’s lack of representation at the National Academy of Design’s exhibitions, holding independent exhibitions at the Macbeth Gallery, New York.

Glackens choice of colour and subject matter differed from other artists of the Ashcan School and by the mid-1910s the group had grown apart. Cape Cod Pier (1908) is evidence of Glackens preference for depicting bourgeois, leisurely pursuits rather than the previous unsentimental urban scenes painted by the Ashcan School. The contrasting orange and lilac hues and the sweeping brush marks describe the scene in loose terms. The scene is broken down into large areas of colour that instil the painting with a joyful tone. With no indication of the end of the pier, the central focus is placed upon the figures’ interaction with their surroundings. As Glackens’ health deteriorated towards the end of his life, he increasingly worked within his studio, painting floral still lifes. Whilst not as ambitious as his scenes of bourgeois life, his still lifes still employed bright colours and the loose brushwork that he so admired within European Impressionist painting.

After his death in May 1938, Glackens left behind a strong legacy. His exhibitions with “The Eight” arguably popularised independent exhibitions in America, with The Society of Independent Artists modelling their exhibitions upon those from the Macbeth gallery. Alongside his own artistic practice, Glackens also collected European art for Albert C. Barnes. The collection is now the Barnes Foundation Collection which, much like Glackens’ own artistic career, bridged the gap between American and European art at the time.

Bibliography

Smith, Roberta, “The Beauty of the Everyday”, in The New York Times, 14th August 2014.

Wattenmaker, Richard J., “William Glackens's "Beach Scenes" at Bellport”, Smithsonian Studies in American Art, 2:2 (1988): 74-94.

“William Glackens (1870-1938): L'Aperitif”, Christie’s, https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-4488921 Date Accessed: 05/03/2022.

Zurier, Rebecca, Picturing the City: Urban Vision and the Ashcan School. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006).