William J. Glackens 1870 - 1938

We are grateful to Matthew Baigell for preparing the following essay.  Professor Baigell is professor emeritus of art history at Rutgers University. He has published and edited over twenty books and dozens of articles in American and contemporary Russian art.

The first known reference to the "Ash Can" movement has been traced to the American writer and cartoonist Art Young.  Writing in 1916, he noted the shared realist styles of artists such as William Glackens, John Sloan, Everett Shinn, George Luks, and their mentor, Robert Henri, all of whom were intent on depicting the gritty realities of urban American life. Initially newspaper illustrators in Philadelphia, these artists gravitated to New York around the turn of the last century and became well known, if not notorious, for their prints and paintings of working class scenes often populated by recently arrived immigrants from Europe. They spearheaded the rise of a realistic, urban American art previously dominated by conservative, traditional academic styles at one extreme and more experimental and, for the period, radical Tonalist and Impressionist styles at the other.

While the Ashcan painters often created studio scenes (still lifes, nude studies), they were perhaps best known for their works recording the daily, often tumultuous activities on downtown streets.  Thanks to the growth of light industry and the constantly growing financial and business markets, as well as the city's burgeoning night life which was now illuminated by the introduction of electric lights and accessible by way of the newly developing subway and elevated train systems, these streets were now in a constant state of movement and commotion.  The best reprieve from this urban bustle was provided by the city's parks and squares, and the Ashcan painters turned to these locations in order to capture people's comings and goings.

Glackens' Washington Square is a delightful example of one of the city's oases of greenery, notable for its largely traffic-free paths and walkways. Glackens lived or had a studio on the Square from 1904 to 1922 and clearly loved observing his surroundings as adults strolled and children played under fully leafed trees in summer or on snowbound winter days. Washington Square, undated, was probably painted just before or after 1905 as it closely relates to works by Robert Henri from that period. The women in the upper right also suggest that Glackens was aware of the ways in which James Abbott McNeill Whistler indicated both distance and movement in his street scenes by making his figures nearly transparent.

Glackens' bright palette is a nod but not a capitulation to Impressionism. He was less concerned with surface shimmer than with providing his figures physical heft, their often firm outlines asserting that while they walk in nature, they are not part of it nor are they figures in a continuous optical sheen. This aspect of Glackens' works is typical of American artists, even American Impressionists, who often maintained a sense of object differentiation rather than lose their subjects in a welter of brushstrokes. Generally speaking, communicating narrative and anecdote was more important than exploring space and light. In Washington Square the seemingly rapidly brushed greens, yellows, and reds add their measure of vibrancy to the scene, while also denoting the abundance of nature present in the trees and plants which shelter the park's temporary inhabitants from the noise of the city streets. Even today, a stroll through the Square provides both exhilarating and quieting effects on those passing through and Glackens captures this paradoxical mood beautifully.

Although Glackens maintains a distance from his subjects and allows them to remain anonymous, we can tell by their dress that some are governesses tending to the children in their charge and others are ladies elegantly attired for a morning or afternoon promenade. The painting probably represents a weekday scene because the women walk alone while their husbands, who have handsomely provided for them, are at the office. Invariably, the women appear relaxed and engaged in leisure-time pursuits, their cares seemingly left behind on the teeming streets surrounding the Square. In such scenes, New York is seen as an ideal city, an urbanized, middle-class Arcadia where one can escape from the oppressive tall buildings and the bustle of street life, a city in which it is still possible within the limited spaces of parks and squares to retain a sense of privacy and a connection to nature. These are urban landscapes dedicated to private pleasures.

Even though Glackens is strongly identified with the Ashcan School, paintings such as Washington Square can also be considered part of the contemporary City Beautiful Movement as well as the American Renaissance, not in the sense of academic styles but in demonstrating the refinement, sophistication, and civility of American cities. In this regard, he is part of a broader company of artists that includes figures such as William Merritt Chase and Maurice Prendergast.