+ Expand

Artist or Maker: William Glackens (1870-1938)

+ Expand

Description: Girl in Green
signed 'W. Glackens' (lower left)
oil on canvas
24 1/4 x 18 1/4 in. (61.6 x 46.4 cm.)

+ Expand

Provenance: Denver Museum of Art, 1934.
Joan Michelman, Ltd., New York.
Private collection, 1990.

+ Expand

Notes: As a student and throughout his career, William Glackens visited Paris and was exposed to the art of the French Impressionists. His first-hand exposure to French art had a profound effect on Glackens' approach and he soon adopted a vivid palette that employed contrasting color harmonies. The present painting, Girl in Green, is an exemplary work displaying Glackens' assimilation into French Impressionism.

Glackens illustrates the influence of the French Impressionists in Girl in Green with his use of jeweled colors and short brushstrokes. During his frequent travels in Europe, Glackens took the opportunity to examine the works of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists. Discovering their palette and technique had a liberating effect on his own sense of color and method, he began exploring and utilizing high-keyed colors using quick, spontaneous brushstrokes. In Girl in Green, Glackens uses bright reds, greens, blues and violets. Regarding Glackens' new color palette, Arthur Hoeber noted, "If Mr. Glackens thus sees his nature, he must enjoy life far more than the ordinarily equipped human, for there is a riot of tone to his vision." (as quoted in W.H. Gerdts, William Glackens, New York, 1996, p. 90)