William Glackens
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1870 – 1938, Westport, Connecticut
William James Glackens always wanted to be a painter. To that end, he took night classes at the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown of Philadelphia in the early 1890s. Glackens
studied under Thomas Anchutz, whose lower class subjects and brooding palette were echoed in
Glackens’ early paintings. During the day, Glackens worked as an illustrator for the Philadelphia
Record, the Philadelphia Public Ledger, and the Philadelphia Press.It was there that he met
three future members of the Eight: George Luks, Everett Shinn and John Sloan. Glackens already
knew Robert Henri, who would become the leader of the Eight, since the two shared a studio.
Eventually, all five of these realist artists, known in Philadelphia as the “apostles of ugliness”
because of their lower class subjects, would move to New York and turn the art world upside-
down.
In New York, Glackens continued to work as an illustrator, this time for magazines like
McClures and the New York Herald. Art historians remember Glackens most for his association
with the Eight, who exhibited at the MacBeth Gallery in 1908 in protest of the National
Academy’s stronghold on the exhibition of contemporary art. The Eight’s subjects–New York’s
urban environment–were anathema to the Academy and they were usually rejected from the
Academy’s exhibitions. Around this time, Glackens made several trips to Europe that were
important to his painting, for it was there that he discovered the work of the French Impressionist,
August Renoir, which greatly influenced Glackens’ mature style. It was just after the MacBeth
exhibition that Glackens began to move away from the dark Monet-like palette and took on the
lighter colors and feathery brushstrokes of Renoir. This technique reached its apogee in the
Bellport, Long Island beach scenes of 1911-1916 and Glackens portraits of his friends and family,
when, as Richard J. Wattenmaker of the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art
notes, “…he was decisively acknowledged by peers and critics alike as one of the leading
exponents of the impressionist tradition in America.”
William James Glackens always wanted to be a painter. To that end, he took night classes at the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown of Philadelphia in the early 1890s. Glackens
studied under Thomas Anchutz, whose lower class subjects and brooding palette were echoed in
Glackens’ early paintings. During the day, Glackens worked as an illustrator for the Philadelphia
Record, the Philadelphia Public Ledger, and the Philadelphia Press.It was there that he met
three future members of the Eight: George Luks, Everett Shinn and John Sloan. Glackens already
knew Robert Henri, who would become the leader of the Eight, since the two shared a studio.
Eventually, all five of these realist artists, known in Philadelphia as the “apostles of ugliness”
because of their lower class subjects, would move to New York and turn the art world upside-
down.
In New York, Glackens continued to work as an illustrator, this time for magazines like
McClures and the New York Herald. Art historians remember Glackens most for his association
with the Eight, who exhibited at the MacBeth Gallery in 1908 in protest of the National
Academy’s stronghold on the exhibition of contemporary art. The Eight’s subjects–New York’s
urban environment–were anathema to the Academy and they were usually rejected from the
Academy’s exhibitions. Around this time, Glackens made several trips to Europe that were
important to his painting, for it was there that he discovered the work of the French Impressionist,
August Renoir, which greatly influenced Glackens’ mature style. It was just after the MacBeth
exhibition that Glackens began to move away from the dark Monet-like palette and took on the
lighter colors and feathery brushstrokes of Renoir. This technique reached its apogee in the
Bellport, Long Island beach scenes of 1911-1916 and Glackens portraits of his friends and family,
when, as Richard J. Wattenmaker of the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art
notes, “…he was decisively acknowledged by peers and critics alike as one of the leading
exponents of the impressionist tradition in America.”
(American, 1870 – 1938)
View objects by this artist.