1870-1938

William Glackens, the son of a railroad employee, was born in Philadelphia and attended Central High School along with Albert Barnes and John Sloan. A superb draftsman, he was employed at the age of twenty-one as an illustrator for the Philadelphia Record. In 1892, he joined fellow illustrators Sloan, George Luks, and Everett Shinn at the Philadelphia Press. Glackens attended night classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied for two years with Henry Thouron and Thomas Anshutz and where he met Robert Henri with whom he eventually shared a studio.

Glackens exhibited his first painting at the 64th Annual Exhibition held at the Academy in 1894. A view of the Brooklyn Bridge, now lost, it received accolades from contemporary critics. According to The Philadelphia Ledger, “Highly successful, its effect being convincing. It is interesting to note that it hangs in the same place as did Whistler last year. While it would be rash to compare it with the master, it is pretty sure to be more popular.”

The artist made his first trip to Paris in 1895, where he accompanied Henri to study the European masters and to establish his professional credentials. Shortly after returning to the United States the following year, he moved to New York City and continued his career as an illustrator, working for popular magazines such as Collier’s, Harper’s Bazaar, and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly. In 1898, he traveled to Cuba to cover the Spanish-American War, providing the illustrations for articles written by the news correspondent Stephen Bonsal.

Although he continued doing illustrations until 1914, Glackens’ main focus was painting from the mid-1890s onward. While in Paris, he captured the sites and activities of the lower and middle classes at work and at leisure. Once back in New York, he continued to record life in the immigrant and working-class neighborhoods of the City. His style was Edouard Manet-like, interpreted with a somber, dark, and brushy palette, much in the manner of paintings by Henri, Sloan, and Luks during the same period.

At the turn of the Century, Glackens began to exhibit more extensively in group shows including exhibitions at the Allan Gallery and the National Arts Club. He also exhibited at major expositions such as the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition in 1901 and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, where he won a silver medal for his painting Ballet Girl in Pink (location unknown) and a bronze medal for illustration. At the Carnegie Institute the following year, he won honorable mention for his tour de force, Chez Mouquin (The Art Institute of Chicago). By 1906, he had the distinction of becoming an Associate of the National Academy of Design.

The year 1908 was a benchmark for Glackens as well as his friends Henri, Luks, Sloan, Shinn, Maurice Prendergast, Ernest Lawson, and Arthur B. Davies, who held an exhibition at the Macbeth Gallery, independent of the establishment and conservatism of the National Academy. Thus, the “Eight,” often called the “Ash Can School,” was formed; that is, painters who depicted the reality of life as they witnessed it. The artists were praised and panned for their rebellious attitude and for their “muckraking” pictures. Two years later, the group organized the Exhibition of Independent Artists, the first “no jury-no prizes” exhibition held in the United States, where Glackens exhibited his masterwork Nude with Apple (Brooklyn Museum).

During this period, Glackens began to change his palette and style resulting in more colorful canvases with a Renoir flare. This conversion has often been linked with the artist’s association with Dr. Albert Barnes, his former schoolmate. The two formed a close relationship around 1910, when Barnes invited Glackens to see his collection near Philadelphia, which the artist described as “innocuous.” By 1912, Glackens was on his way to Paris, with the aid of Alfred Maurer, to buy pictures for Barnes. They visited all the leading dealers and collectors of European Modernism, including Leo Stein. The first acquisition was a small Renoir portrait, followed by the works of Alfred Sisley, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, and Paul Cezanne, an impressive group purchased in only three weeks’ time.

Barnes thereafter took over purchasing his own pictures, although he and Glackens remained friends. It is certain, however, that the latter’s veneration for Renoir is at least partly responsible for the collector’s acquisition of several hundred paintings by the French artist. Barnes also acquired over sixty works by Glackens. In 1924, Dr. Barnes distinguished the difference between influence and imitation with regard to Renoir and Glackens:

[Glackens’] psychology is so near that of Renoir, he saw the world in so nearly the same terms, that he has been much influenced by Renoir, especially in the use of color. But Renoir never had the ability of Glackens to express by drawing some of the things in life which move us deeply… those of us who have lived with the work of both men long enough to know the characteristics of each, never would mistake one for the other or admit that Glackens is either an imitator of Renoir or less of an individual artist because he has expressed himself in color which we associate with Renoir’s work.

From 1912 onward, Glackens painted not only his heavily peopled New York scenes, but also his vacation sites on Cape Cod, in New Hampshire, in Gloucester, and most notably, at Bellport, Long Island, in his newly transformed style and palette. His emphasis was on pattern, brilliant color, and feathery brushstroke. Around the same time, he turned to figurative paintings, primarily portraits, interiors, nudes, and floral still lifes. Many of his favorite subjects included members of his family: wife Edith, son Ira, and daughter Lenna, often featured in the living room of their West 9th Street apartment or at his studio at 20 Washington Square South.

In 1913, Glackens, along with fellow members of the “Eight,” exhibited at the renowned Armory Show. The artist had the fortune of showing three works: Family Group (National Gallery of Art), The Bathing Hour (Barnes Foundation), and Sailboats and Sunlight (Smithsonian American Art Museum). He exhibited at San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915, and in 1924, received the prestigious Temple Gold Medal from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for Nude (Private collection).

The following year, Glackens began showing at C.W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, a relationship that continued until his death in 1938 and beyond with his estate. From then on, Glackens traveled extensively throughout Europe, primarily in Paris, as well as in Italy, Spain, and England. In 1937, he received the Grand Prix at the Paris Exposition for Central Park, Winter (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). He died of a cerebral hemorrhage on May 22, 1938, while visiting Charles and Eugenie Prendergast in Westport, Connecticut.

The Glackens family spent much of 1917 in West Hartford, Connecticut, following the death of Edith’s parents and the next summer in Pequot, near New London, Connecticut. The current example was painted during this period and features the feathery brushstrokes and vibrant colors that the artist used beginning around 1912. The elaborate garden provided a variety of subjects for the artist to capture from the large gazebo to the arbor with vines and white flowers to the winding paths edged in green shrubs and blossoming pink and white flowers. In Garden at Hartford, the vivid colors and variety of textures result in a harmonious combination of contrasting light and shadow and fluidity of paint characteristic of Glackens’ painting style during this stage in his career.

William H. Gerdts, William Glackens (New York and Fort Lauderdale: Abbeville Press and Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, 1996), pp. 14-15.
Dr. Albert Barnes, “The L’Art de William Glackens,” Les Arts a Paris 10 (November 1924), p. 3