William Glackens (American, 1870–1938) was a Realist painter who studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts beginning in 1892. At that time, he also worked for The Philadelphia Record as an artist reporter. After traveling to Europe in 1895 with fellow painters John Sloan and Robert Henri, Glackens moved to New York.

Glackens co-founded what was referred to as the Ashcan School art movement, also known as The Eight. Glackens’s early work consisted of dark-hued street scenes and city neighborhoods. His later work was lighter, influenced by artists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir. In 1896, Glackens began working for New York World as an artist. Glackens also took on illustration assignments for McClure’s Magazine, which sent him to cover the Spanish-American War in Cuba. In 1901, Glackens exhibited his work at the Allen Gallery in New York. In 1904, he married artist Edith Dimock.

Glackens began to change his artistic focus in 1910, distancing himself from the Ashcan style, and earning a reputation as the “American Renoir.” During this time, he showed his work in the Exhibition of Independent Artists. In 1916, he took on the role of president of the Society of Independence Artists. Glackens continued to study Impressionist painting in France from 1925 to 1935. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts presented him with gold medals for his work in 1933 and 1936. Notable works such as Girl with Apple (1909) and Nude with Apple (1910) hang in the Brooklyn Museum. Glackens was focused on color, as seen in his painting Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire (1909).

Though his work has changed greatly over the course of his career, at the time of his death in 1938, Glackens was considered to be an important part of the Realist movement.