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William James Glackens
American, 1870-1938
Women Sewing
Signed W. Glackens (lr)
Oil on canvas
16 1/2 x 11 1/4 inches

Provenance:
Estate of the artist
Kraushaar Galleries, New York
David Findlay Jr., Inc., New York
Collection of Lucille and Walter Fillin, Rockville Centre, New York
Private collection, Washington, D.C.

Exhibited:
New York, Davis Galleries, May 1959
A Family Collection: Drawings, sculptures and oils by American artists, selected from the collection of Lucille and Walter Fillin and their Children, a travelling exhibition: Albany, New York, Albany Insitute of History and Art, Jul.-Sep. 1962; New Britain, Connecticut, New Britain Museum of American Art, Oct. 1962; Binghamton, New York, Roberson Memorial Center, Nov.-Dec. 1962; Saratoga Springs, New York, Skidmore College, Dec. 1962-Jan. 1963; Syracuse, New York, Everson Museum of Art, Jan.-Mar. 1963; Williamstown, Massachusetts, Williams College Museum of Art, Mar.-Apr. 1963
Stony Brook, New York, State University of New York, 1964
New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers University Art Gallery, The Art of William Glackens, Jan. 10-Feb. 10, 1967
Southampton, New York, Parrish Art Museum, The Eight, Aug. 17-Sep. 22, 1974, no. 74.10.13
Hempstead, New York, Emily Lowe Gallery, Hofstra University
New Britain, Connecticut, The New Britain Museum of American Art
Williamstown, Massachusetts, Williams College Museum of Art

William Glackens studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he met the artists Robert Henri and John Sloan. He settled in New York in 1896, gravitating toward a group of avant-garde artists now known as the Eight. After having their submissions repeatedly rejected by the National Academy, these artists mounted an independent show of their work, which was so successful that it became a traveling exhibition.

Most of the Eight worked in a realist vein, often emphasizing the gritty details of the urban street, a subject matter that earned them the name "Ashcan School." By contrast to some of his companions, Glackens focused on the joy and beauty of everyday life, even that of people in modest circumstances. He portrayed this cheerful vision in brilliant color, painting with vigorous strokes of the brush. Woman Sewing is a particularly fine example of his mature style.

In 1923, Forbes Watson wrote, "Glackens plays at painting. There is no tormented, morbid struggle with profound life facts disturbing him. He doesn't delve deeply into psychology. The color of the world makes him thoroughly happy, and to express that happiness in color has become his first and most natural impulse. He lives in a kind of dream of painting, absorbed, distrait, unaware of the problems that bother more unhappy natures. He is one of the gayest, most delightful and accomplished painters in the world today. If he were more heavy-handed and ponderous there would be much more made of our good fortune in having such a painter in our midst." [Forbes Watson, William Glackens. NY: Duffield and Company, The Arts, 1923. pp. 20-22]