William Glackens
Though he worked closely beside Robert Henri within the Ashcan School of American art, William Glackens rejected their bleak, subdued compositions depicting the grit and grime of modern middle-class life. At first, this was not the case; his images of the dreary streets of New York City earned him his reputation as a serious artist. But after several trips to Paris and the south of France, he turned his attention to what was considered mainstream impressionism, developing a brightly colorful and dynamic style all his own.
Beach Umbrellas proudly displays Glackens’ self-evolved style, the warmth and summer joviality of his palette and a veritable line through the center of the painting. Orange-and-cream umbrellas float above the heads of bathers crowded together on a narrow spit of sand, the braver ones seeking solace in the waves. The parasols’ patterns are reflected in the siding of the turreted house behind them, the columns and trim of which capture subtle hints of the violet and blue in the sky above.
Around each figure seems an aura of movement, outlines created by clouds of color. Glackens employed thatch-like brushstrokes in the creation of his forms: the summer dresses of the ladies, the roof of the spire, the fruitful trees in the background. They threaten to overlap and blend into each other as per a more characteristically impressionist painting.
Instead, his shapes butt heads with one another like approaching storm fronts. The result is a field of independent figures and objects, united in the sketch-like haste of Glackens’ brushstrokes yet idiosyncratic in action and color.
Anthony deFeo
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