Winter Beauty from The Ashcan School

Snowy Scenes of Painters Henri, Sloan, Glackens and Bellows

Dec 4, 2008

Discover the wintry charm of paintings by Ashcan School artists Robert Henri, John Sloan, William Glackens and George Wesley Bellows.

At the turn of the 20th century, a group of American artists headed by painter and teacher Robert Henri decided to focus much of their work on scenes from urban life. This inclination towards social realism was based on Henri’s belief that art was everywhere, waiting to be discovered, and a reaction against the studied loveliness of certain Impressionist works.

This group would call itself The Eight but was also known as “The Ashcan School,” due to the derisive comments of critics who found The Eight’s work to be unappealing and taking art in an unseemly direction. Members of The Eight with Robert Henri were John Sloan, Everett Shinn, George Luks, William Glackens, Ernest Lawson, Maurice Prendergast and Arthur Davies.

Snow in New York

Beyond the controversy created by The Eight’s scenes of evictions, the poor and downtrodden, bloody butcher shops and bleak saloons, there were memorably beautiful real-life moments captured by these artists, particularly in winter. Robert Henri’s cityscape Snow in New York (1902) shows a street after flurries of whiteness, with horse-drawn carts pushing past brownstone buildings toward a curving lamppost. Henri’s thick brushstrokes and opaque sky give the effect of snow that has just begun to let up, with a hint that maybe even more is on the way. Also, Henri’s noting a date of March 5, 1902 on his canvas possibly indicates that the work was begun and completed that very same day, and perhaps followed an actual snowstorm as witnessed by Henri then painted in an alla prima session.

Backyards, Greenwich Village

Like a few of his other Eight colleagues, John Sloan (1871-1951) worked as an illustrator in Philadelphia before moving to New York. He would find much inspiration in Manhattan, especially within the bohemian hub of Greenwich Village. Sloan’s 1914 Backyards, Greenwich Village is an excellent example of how “Ashcan” art could convey a unique beauty. The scene is just the narrow backyards of cramped city houses after a snowfall, but Sloan’s details fill his painting with life and charm. Laundry hangs stiffly yet colorfully in the cold air, cats huddle on ledges or slink across powdery white drifts, while children build a snowman or peer from windows at the newly transformed winter landscape.

Battery and Central Parks

William Glackens (1870-1938) was also originally another Philadelphia newspaper illustrator, or what was then often called a visual reporter. Before the full advent of photography, visual reporters were as important as journalists, and Glackens was quite skilled at his job and able to quickly witness a scene, then head back to the newsroom and flesh it out from memory for print. In his paintings he took a more thorough approach, such as his 1905 Central Park in Winter. Glackens’ dreamy blues and carefully placed figures turn a corner of New York’s great park into an intriguing tableau.

George Bellows (1882-1925) was not an official Eight member, but he had been a student of Robert Henri’s and considered Henri to be one of America’s best art educators. Furthermore, Bellows agreed with The Eight’s essential philosophy and applied their principles to his own paintings. Bellows is well-known for his intense depictions of boxing matches and life scenes, and he was also a big fan of winter. “I must always paint the snow at least once a year,” Bellows said, and in his 1910 Blue Snow, The Battery, he did just that. Bellows’s Battery Park has a similar snowy light and shading as Glackens’ Central Park portrait, but the figures within Bellows’ painting seem poorer and more harried. There’s also a sense that when the snow melts down in the Battery, the park will lose its wintry stillness and reveal a less appealing view.

Painting Locales

Robert Henri’s Snow in New York can be seen at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., while John Sloan’s Backyards, Greenwich Village is on view at The Whitney Museum of American Art. William Glackens’ Central Park, Winter is presently at The Metropolitan Museum in New York, and George Bellows’ Blue Snow, The Battery is at Ohio’s Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus being Bellows’ original hometown.

Sources

The copyright of the article Winter Beauty from The Ashcan School in 20th Century Art is owned by Meg Nola. Permission to republish Winter Beauty from The Ashcan School in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.