American Artist Everett Shinn
Member of The Eight and The Ashcan School of Painting
© Meg Nola
Nov 28, 2008
Everett Shinn was born on November 6, 1876 to a Quaker family in Woodstown, New Jersey. He studied mechanical drawing in Philadelphia at first — a pursuit which he soon found rather boring — then enrolled at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Shinn also had a job with the Philadelphia Press by age seventeen, working as a “visual reporter” who quick-sketched interesting, newsworthy events. At this point in time, photography had not yet become the main source of images for newspapers and cameras were too cumbersome and unreliable, giving an edge to artists who could rush out and vividly depict any exciting happenings.
Everett and The Eight
While in Philadelphia, Shinn became part of an artistic circle that initially included painters Robert Henri, John Sloan, William Glackens and George Luks. Collectively, this group would start the Ashcan School (alternately spelled as Ash Can School) movement, intent on portraying true scenes of American life — with American urban life being the primary focus. The group would soon be rounded out by Maurice Prendergast, Ernest Lawson and Arthur B. Davies and was officially known as The Eight, but the artists were often called Ashcan painters by critics commenting derisively on The Eight’s “grimy” or “gritty” sources of inspiration.
As a visual reporter, Shinn had a keen eye for compelling real-life moments and was able to produce excellent work for The Eight, capturing fights on the street or tenement scenes. But in truth, Shinn was even more intrigued by the glamour of the city: the rich pageant of society people, the cultural institutions, alluring department store windows, elegant restaurants, and especially the theater. Paintings such as The Hippodrome, London and The Vaudeville Act show Shinn’s fascination with actresses and actors, costumes, lighting and staging, along with the crowds who filled the theater and music hall seats. Shinn’s 1900 trip to Europe further broadened his perspective and palette, and marked a shift from his predominant use of pastels to oil paint.
Many Talents and Marriages
Shinn soon left Philadelphia to work for the New York World newspaper. Most of The Eight would eventually gravitate to New York as well, but beyond that circle Shinn befriended architect and bon vivant Stanford White. White, whom Shinn called a “red-headed wild man” of great influence, helped Shinn secure several mural project commissions and meet Manhattan’s elite. A 1901 self-portrait shows how the sharp-dressed, handsome and charming Shinn enjoyed developing his artistic persona, a process which he once humorously described as "great fun. being an artist. with temperament."
Shinn’s Greenwich Village studio had a theater annex which Shinn himself constructed, and along with a group known as The Waverly Players, Shinn wrote his own plays, built the sets and took part in the productions. Later, he would apply the same flair to art directing work on Hollywood films.
Shinn’s fondness for the opposite sex led to four marriages, including his first to fellow artist Florence Scovel Shinn. Florence was a member of The Waverly Players and would later become an early New Age theory guru and author of The Game of Life and How to Play It. Everett’s marriages, divorces, romances and various talents may have kept him from fully concentrating on a serious art career, but beyond that he did have a rather full and colorful life.
Legacy
The youngest of The Eight, Everett Shinn was also the last survivor of the group, succumbing to lung cancer in 1953. His work has experienced renewed interest in recent years and can be seen at many American museums, including The Art Institute of Chicago, The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., and The Yale University Art Gallery.
Sources
- The Terra Foundation for American Art - Everett Shinn
- The Sympathetic Eye on a Metropolitan Beat - The New York Times
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