A very informative project on Western painters

1. Western old painters

2. From the People’s View: An Examination of Paintings and Photographs at the Turn-of-the-Century

5. Lewis Hine (1874-1940) “ Photographer, social reformer; born in Oshkosh, Wis. Trained as a sociologist, he used photographs to inspire reform. In 1905 he documented immigrants on Ellis Island, publishing his photos with his own text. His work as the official photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (1911-16) influenced passage of the child labor laws. Chief photographer for the Works Progress Administration (1936), he documented the Tennessee Valley Authority project.”

6. Jacob Riis (1849-1914) Born in Denmark to a family of 15 children, Riis came to the U.S. in 1870. Employed as a journalist and photographer. Published over a dozen books, the most famous being How the Other Half Lives. Riis saw himself as a social reformer (as did Hine), and some say his photos were carefully crafted to portray city life in the worst possible light. Had a great impact on political leadership like Teddy Roosevelt.

7. Robert Henri (1865-1929) Considered the leader of the Ashcan School. Encouraged his students to go into the streets and paint what they saw. Most famous student, Edward Hopper. Trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Only he and Luks were originally trained as painters. Studied artists familiar with human subjects – Rembrandt, Velasquez, and Goya. Rebelled against French technique, preferring a style like Whistler’s. He read popular social commentators like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thomas Paine. Also influenced by novels of Zola, Balzac, and Tolstoy and the familiar theme of social justice. Henri, “imagined the making of art as a noble activity on par with writing, a way for the individual to live a meaningful life and to communicate with fellow beings.”

8. Salome, 1909 Salome was a popular opera based upon the Biblical figure who demanded the head of John the Baptist. “Salomania” erupted in New York, with many copycats. Henri submitted this painting to the National Academy of Design and was rejected. Some art historians compare this to Manet’s Olympia – being that it is an apparent bridge between art and commercialism. “ This painting was also characteristic of the Ashcan School, with its combination of overt sensuality and traditional literary references mixing high and low culture, popular and refined tastes.”

9. Cumulus Clouds, East River , 1901-02. The East River was viewable from Henri’s house, the location from which this painting was made. Dark tones meant to convey the working nature of the waterfront. Echoes Whistler.

10. George Bellows (1882-1925) Born in Ohio, moved to New York in 1904 and became Henri’s protégé. Was a fast learner and had great facility as a painter. Considered himself and anarchist and admired Emma Goldman.

11. Men of the Docks , 1912. Dockworkers congregate around the docks waiting for work. As in his New York painting, Bellows pieces together two locations to produce this work.

12. A Day In June , 1913. Bellows frequently painted the upper classes at leisure. Again, a hallmark of the Ashcan artists is the proximity of the artists to the subject. Though there were social classes, the artist closely interacts with his subject.

13. A Lewis Hine photo of kids playing ball in a Pennsylvania mill town. Why Don’t They All Go To The Country For a Vacation? 1913. “Bellows made his pictures of tenement life at a time when social reform agencies were compiling pictorial evidence for investigations into ‘the congestion of population in New York’.”

14. New York , 1913. Perhaps the most famous work of the Ashcan school. Used extensively to depict New York at the turn of the century. Was actually a composite of several streets, not one location.

17. Skating in Central Park , 1910. Art historians believe this work was influenced by Renoir and Monet, who both utilized choppy brushwork and blue shadows.

18. Beach Umbrellas at Blue Point , ca. 1915. Not everyone could go to Long Island to escape the heat, but the growing middle class could and did. This was a period in history when the sexes began to publicly intermingle. Other similar paintings by Glackens focused on this aspect of the changing culture.

19. George Luks (1867-1933) Drew a political cartoon, Hogan’s Alley Luks claimed to emphasize “character over poverty.” His painting is described as energetic which may come from his admiration of people striving to improve their economic lot. Source: Metropolitan Lives.

20. Allen Street, 1905. Luks’ abstract use of form and color convey the vividness and liveliness of the typical New York street scene.

21. Left – Luks’ In the Steerage . Above – Hine’s Ferry Boat

22. Pennsylvania Coal Town by George Luks Steelworks Near Pittsburgh By Lewis Hine

23. Everett Shinn (1876-1953) Moved to New York in 1897 at the insistence of Luks and Glackens. They arranged a position for him at the New York World . Believed the streets and tenements made for “effective” pictures. Combined skills as an artist and reporter to create dramatic, realistic paintings. In keeping with Ashcan methodology, once planned an exhibit where drawings of squalor would be placed next to fashionable works.

24. Eviction, 1904. Evictions were a common scene. The urban poor moved frequently, looking for leases where they got their first month free. After not paying the second month’s rent, many were thrown out on the streets, or came home to find all their belongings in the streets.

25. Cross Streets of New York, 1899. Originally published as a black and white drawing. Probably Shinn’s best known work. Part of a pictorial tour of Manhattan. This drawing of course was a detour off the more fashionable streets of New York.

26. John Sloan (1871-1951) Enjoyed literature. Whitman’s Leaves of Grass was one of his favorite collections. Moved to New York after losing his illustrator’s job at the Philadelphia Press. Lived the classic artist’s life – sleeping late, spending late nights out with other artists and writers, scrambling for work, trying to sell paintings. Kept a detailed diary of his political sentiments, among other things. Regarding the general strike in Philadelphia in 1910: “We are feeling the first throbs of the Great Revolution. I’m proud of my old home – cradling the newer greater Liberty for America!”

27. Three A.M., 1909. This is classic Ashcan – painted by Sloan as he looked out his apartment window; rejected by the National Academy of Design exhibition since the subject (two likely prostitutes) deemed to be too low class for an art exhibit. Sloan was keenly interested in the women’s movement – suffrage, union membership, etc.

28. Hairdresser’s Window , 1907. Another Ashcan classic: Sloan paints a low rent hairdresser bleaching the hair of a client. Sloan, and this painting influenced Andy Warhol

29. Night Windows , 1910. Another view from Sloan’s window. Women doing the laundry in a crowded New York tenement.

30. The Woman’s Page , 1905. An obviously poor woman reads the social page, and catches a glimpse of a very fashionable, very thin woman.

31. Fifth Avenue Critics , 1905. Sloan, like the Ashcan artists in general, were not sympathetic to the rich. These “critics” Sloan intended to show as mean spirited.

32. Sunil Kumar Jadav & Syed Sadiq Basha