Everett Shinn | Collections | Cheekwood Estate & Gardens in Nashville, TN
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Everett Shinn
Everett Shinn was born on November 6, in Pilesgrove Township, a small town near Woodstown, New Jersey.  Over the course of Shinn’s life, he worked as a painter, illustrator, designer, playwright and film director.  In 1893 Shinn became an illustrator at the “Philadelphia Press.”  The knowledge and experience Shinn gained as an illustrator would influence his future fine art work, training Shinn to compose pictures in a manner that included the critcal details and captured viewers’ interest.

While working as an illustrator, Shinn attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he met Robert Henri, John Sloan, William Glackens and George Luks.  Their urban realist style of painting inspired Shinn to adopt a similar aesthetic, portraying everyday people caught in the daily grind of city life.  In 1897 Shinn moved to New York and produced illustrations for several newpapers and magazines, including illustrations for William Dean Howells’ novel about New York.  Although Howells’ book was never published, Shinn’s illustrations brought him national recognition.  While on a trip to Paris in 1901, Shinn’s work changed dramatically when he was inspired by the teater scenes of Monet and Degas.  Thereafter, the theater became the prominent subject in Shinn’s artwork.

Shinn is probably best known for his affiliation with The Eight, a group of American artists who exhibited together in 1908 in protest over the hanging practices of the National Academy of Design.  The elitist and exclusive quality of the American exhibition system had no use for the “common” subject matter in The Eight’s paintings.  Robert Henri was the leader of The Eight, which in addition to Shinn included Luks, Glackens and John Sloan, as well as Ernest Lawson, Arthur B. Davies and Maurice Prendergast.
(Woodstown, New Jersey, 1876 – 1953, New York City)
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