William James Glackens was one of the pioneering members of the Ashcan School during the first quarter of the 20th century, and, like many of his fellow artists, he often drew on contemporary life as the subject matter for his paintings. Despite his association with the Ashcan artists and their more gritty realist style, Glackens found his greatest inspiration in the French Impressionist movement, creating brilliantly hued canvases that recorded everyday life in a fresh and stylish way. The present oil on canvas is exemplary of his output, bringing together an impressionist eye for light and color with a modern subject matter. Executed at the height of his career and the full maturation of his impressionist style, the charming work is also highly personal, as its subject is his daughter, Lena.
Captured on a bright morning, The Breakfast Porch depicts Lena in white and yellow admiring flowers in the vase that sits in front of her. Glackens' painterly technique not only reveals his devotion to the impressionist style, but specifically to the great Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The artist had a keen interest in Renoir's oeuvre - not only did he study and admire his work, but Glackens also helped to acquire the great Impressionist's paintings for his friend and colleague, Albert C. Barnes, the renowned American collector. The Breakfast Porch beautifully illuminates Renoir's influence on Glackens' personal style, from his rich palette of colors to his vigorous brushwork.
Born in Philadelphia in 1870, Glackens showed talent for art and illustration at an early age. After graduating high school, he found ready work with Philadelphia newspapers, moving around from one paper to another and mastering the trade of artist-illustrator. Glackens fell in with a group of young men who worked as journalists to support themselves and studied evenings at the renowned art school of The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The group, which included George Luks, John Sloan, and Everett Shinn, was loosely organized around the charismatic figure of Robert Henri, the later founder of the Ashcan School.
Throughout his artistic career, Glackens adapted French stylistic strategies to suit his own concerns. He first went to Europe in 1895, together with Robert Henri, and his work took on an amalgam of influences, including Edouard Manet, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, and Diego Velázquez. In 1907, Glackens was one of the organizers of the landmark exhibition "The Eight," which was held as a protest against the narrow-minded exhibition policies of the National Academy of Design. The Ashcan School evolved from this groundbreaking exhibition, though Glackens' impressionistic style set him apart from his contemporaries. Today, his works can be found in important public collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Art Institute of Chicago, the Phillips Collection, the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C.), and many more.
Circa 1920
