Background
Mr. Glackens was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, on March 13, 1870. He was the youngest of three children to Elizabeth and Samuel Glackens, a clerk and cashier for the Pennsylvania Railroad, a family of modest means.
Mr. Glackens was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, on March 13, 1870. He was the youngest of three children to Elizabeth and Samuel Glackens, a clerk and cashier for the Pennsylvania Railroad, a family of modest means.
William Glackens was well educated, attending Central High School with future artists John Sloan and James Preston, and the future pharmaceutical inventor and collector Albert C. Barnes. Glackens, whose nickname in school was "Butts," showed a proclivity for art at an early age and often produced funny drawings and scenes of school life for the amusement of his fellow students.
In November 1891, he enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It was here that he, John Sloan, and a few other students formed the "Charcoal Club" in 1893. This informal group aimed to explore themes not offered as part of the academics of the Academy, most notably nude figure drawing. The group was also highly social, generating many stories of its members working through the night and waking up among their drawings and emptied bottles of alcohol. Concurrently Mr. Glackens worked as an illustrator for the Philadelphia Record. His job required him to learn to draw quickly and produce work on tight deadlines. He was also thrust into an atmosphere quite unlike the quiet studio; once he fell into a pool of blood when sketching a murder scene. William Glackens left his studies in October 1894.
In 1895 Mr. Glackens spent a year in Paris and then settled in New York City, where he worked as an illustrator for The New York Herald and the New York World. He went to Cuba in 1898 to cover the Spanish-American War for McClure’s Magazine. While establishing his reputation as a graphic artist, Glackens also began to paint in oils and was a regular participant in the Pennsylvania Academy’s annual exhibitions. Hammerstein’s Roof Garden (1901), a cabaret scene, was his first important oil painting and was exhibited at the Allen Gallery in New York.
William Glackens joined a group of artists who were also interested in depicting contemporary life. Robert Henri, with whom Glackens had traveled to Paris in 1895, was the leader of this group, which included John Sloan, George Luks, and Everett Shinn, as well as the more romantic painters Ernest Lawson, Maurice Prendergast, and Arthur B. Davies. Known as The Eight, they held one memorable exhibition in 1908, but, because of diversity of viewpoints, they disbanded. In the same year, one of Glackens’s paintings was shown at the National Academy of Design, where the New York public was surprised at the change in the artist’s palette.
After nearly a decade and a half of producing paintings that reflected the influence of Robert Henri in their muted colors and gestural brushstrokes, Glackens, inspired by his visits to France and the Netherlands, had turned to depict outdoor scenes, using bright, lively colors. His change in style was reinforced by frequent trips to France, including a 1912 journey sponsored by his friend Albert Barnes, who sent William Glackens to France as his agent to purchase contemporary French paintings, including works by Cézanne, Matisse, and Renoir. Glackens served as chairman of the committee that selected American art for the Armory Show in 1913, and later, in 1917, was the first president of the Society of Independent Artists.
Mr. Glackens distinguished himself from impressionism, however, by not allowing light to dissolve the contour of his forms. From about 1925 to 1932 he divided his time between New York and France, but he continued his involvement in the New York art world and his friendship with other artists associated with The Eight.
William Glackens's ability to capture the moments of contemporary daily life is at the heart of his contribution to modern art. He translated French Impressionism into a distinct American style by modernizing its palette and depicting analogous scenes of 20th-century life in New York. Glackens's interest in cultivating an American style would also be important to contemporary American modernists, including Marsden Hartley and John Sloan. As part of "The Eight," he was instrumental in the break from official academies and the popularization of independent exhibitions. The Society of Independent Artists, which hosted an annual public exhibition from 1917 until 1944, was closely modeled on this example.
His posthumous retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art several months later, also shown at the Carnegie Institute at Pittsburgh, was well received. His legacy is linked to that of the Ashcan school and The Eight. Although he distanced himself from some of their ideals, William Glackens continued to be considered an integral part of the realist movement in American art.
Bal Bullier
From Under Willows
The Artist's Wife and Son
Twenty-Three Fifth Avenue, Interior
Nude in green chair
The Swing
Café de la Paix
Christmas Shoppers
Café Lafayette (Portrait of Kay Laurel)
The Artist's Wife Knitting
The artist's wife and son
The Drive, Central Park
North Beach Swimming Pool
Under the Trees, Luxembourg Gardens
Merry Christmas
At the Beach
Beach side
Twenty-Three Fifth Avenue
Garden in Hartford
Bowlers, La Ciotat
Summer Hotel
A Stroll in the Park
East Point, Gloucester
Roses and Perimmons
Breakfast Porch
Under the Trees
New Castle, New Hampshire
Lenna, the Artist's Daughter, in a Chinese Costume
Poppies, Lilies and Blue Flowers
Nude on a Red Sofa
Skating in Central Park
Fête de Suquet
Young Woman in Green
Hammerstein's Roof Garden
Beach Scene, New London
Back of nude
Family Group
29 Washington Square
Nude with Hat
Mahone Bay
Breezy Day Tugboats New York Harbor
Washington Square Park
May Day in Central Park
Connecticut landscape
Italo-American Celebration, Washington Square
Family group
Girl in a Black Cape
Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire
On the Quai
Fruit Stand Coney Island
Tugboat and Lighter
Dancer in a pink dress
Scene on the Lower East Side
Central Park in Winter
The Bandstand
Washington Square
Umbrellas
Far from the Fresh Farm Air
Bathing at Bellport
Standing girl with white spats
Portrait Of Charles Fitzgerald
Soda Fountain
Descending from the Bus
Dancer in blue
The Hammock
Chez Mouquin
Sledding in Central Park
Seated Actress with Mirror
Sledding
Girl Roller-Skating, Washington Square
City Scene
Flowers in a Quimper Pitcher
La Villette
Nude with Apple
Figures in a Park, Paris
1911 For the Championship of the Backlot League
The Shoppers
The Green Car
Lenna Painting (The Artist's Daughter)
Flowers Against a Palm Leaf Pettern
The Bathing Hour
Treading Clams, Wickford
Parade
Bathing at Bellport, Long Island
In 1906 William Glackens was elected into the National Academy of Design as an associate member, and became a full Academician in 1933. Later he also joined The Eight.
Quotes from others about the person
Jerome Myers: "The studio home of William Glackens, on Ninth Street just off Fifth Avenue, partook of the charm of this fine, boasted period. It was a delightful privilege for my wife and me to participate occasionally in the at-homes of the Glackens[es] during the season. Surrounded by the masterpieces of William Glackens, friends would gather in congenial remembrance: Edith Glackens, always an amusing hostess; William Glackens, quietly reminiscing with his companions. The young Glackens[es], Lenna and Ira, filled out the family picture, happy with their young artist friends, as well as with older friends who had known them since childhood. Of the latter were Everett Shinn and Guy Pène du Bois....the whole scene [was] imbued with the spirit of a New York that is now passing."
In 1904 William Glackens married artist Edith Dimock, daughter of a wealthy family. They were the parents of two children, Lenna and Ira.
