Rising from the Ash: The Art of the Ashcan School

Amid the turn to a more realistic view of the modern world in painting in the later years of the 19th century, a group of intrepid American painters decided to push the artistic envelope even further. These artists, known as the Ashcan School of painters, turned their artistic focus directly to the modern American landscape with an unfiltered and honest lens. At the time their approach was revolutionary, and still today these Ashcan School masters are recognized among the most influential artists of their generation. 

In this article, we’ll explore the Ashcan School in greater detail. In addition to providing some essential context for the movement’s development (including how they got their name), we’ll also showcase some of the most notable works that illustrate the group’s brilliance.

More Real than Realism

The Ashcan School’s origins lay in American Impressionism that took root in the late 19th century. Inspired by the French Impressionists like Claude Monet and Pierre Auguste Renoir, American painters such as Thomas Eakins realized the potential that both a more modern subject matter and a more powerful palette could yield. Eakins channeled this into his paintings ranging from rowers on the river to contemplative portraits and that worked against the artistic conventions of the day to instead focus on more real subjects rendered in subdued palettes. He also incorporated this into his teaching at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts..

Two of Eakins’ best students were Robert Henri and Thomas Anschutz, who absorbed much of Eakins’ innovative aesthetic. They also adopted a muted, sometimes muddy palette and sought subjects that spoke even more directly to contemporary urban culture. In doing so, they gave a visual voice to marginalized populations, like the poor and working class, and they showcased scenes of cityscapes and landscapes not glamorized but rather in honest – and at times unflattering – detail. With Anschutz’s collegial support, Henri forged a network of artists interested in similar themes. These painters, including  John Sloan, William Glackens, Everett Shinn, George Luks, Arthur B. Davies, Maurice B. Prendergast and Ernest Lawson thus formed what they call “The Eight”, a loose, avant-garde assembly that would become the foundation of the Ashcan School.

The Eight Expand

This casual network of artists settled in New York City around the turn of the century and debuted their approach at the Macbeth Gallery in 1908. The work of The Eight was well received for its refreshed perspective, but it was not until George Bellows joined the group that the idea of the “Ashcan School” would come into focus. In February 1914, Bellows published an illustration entitled “Disappointments of the Ash Can,” in The Masses magazine. Shown under the header “Real Tragedy,” it depicted three impoverished men inspecting an abandoned ash can. At the time, the illustration caused an outrage, but it was significant because it spoke to the growing interest of the group to use their art to attend to modern realities, including poverty and the less fortunate. Though they were not advocating for actual social reform, they wanted to showcase the lesser-known facets of modern life, if not to change minds, then to at least broaden perspectives. 

Flash forward two decades to 1934, and Bellow’s same drawing received a different reception when it became the source of inspiration for the groundbreaking “Ashcan” exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. By that point, the inventiveness and importance of these Ashcan painters had been recognized in the larger conversation of modern art.  

Five Fantastic Ashcan School Paintings

The following discusses five exemplary works by some of the movement’s most celebrated artists to further illuminate the amazing range of Ashcan School paintings.

Thomas Anschutz’s The Ironworkers’ Noontime (1880)

A student of both Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Parisian Academie Julian, Thomas Anschutz was perhaps the most direct descendant of Eakins’ approach. Demonstrating this was one of his most iconic works, The Ironworkers’ Noontime, one of the first works Anschutz completed while still a student training under Eakins. Here, Anschutz homes in on a group of foundry workers who are on a shift break and captures them in a manner that recalls the desolate nature of factory work. Despite that dreariness, Anschutz depicts these men in an almost triumphant posture. Transforming modern foundry workers into a grouping of Classical titans, Anschutz reminds the viewer here that the success of American industry is built upon the backs of the American workers.

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William Glackens’ East River Park (1902)

Inspired by Impressionism’s loosened brushwork, William Glackens carried that technique into the realm of Ashcan paintings in works like East River Park. In this painting, Glackens portrays the humble realities of a small respite of nature set against an opposite shore teeming with the billowing smoke stacks of an industrial corridor of New York City. His ability to capture such simple yet striking snapshots of city life was perhaps enhanced by his work as an illustrator and later as an artist-reporter for newspapers and magazines, but it was assuredly also impacted by his study with Thomas Anschutz and Robert Henri. Their influence in terms of subject and palette can be seen here in a painting completed the year after a pivotal exhibition of his work at the Allen Gallery that helped to launch Glackens’ career.

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Robert Henri’s The Blue Kimono (1909)

In addition to depicting scenes of the modern city, the Ashcan painters also devoted compositions to portraiture. Robert  Henri’s The Blue Kimono showcases this nicely – while the title keeps the identity of the subject anonymous, the beautiful kimono becomes the focal point. He did so to draw attention to the cultural melting pot that modern metropolises like New York City had become.At the same time, Henri’s compositional approach recalls the portraiture tradition of art history, from Diego Velasquez to contemporary John Singer Sargent, recalling that while the Ashcan School sought novelty they also had a deep appreciation for art’s past.

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John Sloan’s McSorley’s Bar (1912)

John Sloan was an early member of The Eight, and his ascent to artistic acclaim happened only just before he completed McSorley’s Bar. Building on past professional experience as an illustrator, Sloan seemingly captures a snapshot of this mellow barroom. Rather than convey a boisterous, crowded evening of revelry, Sloan instead showcases a calm, almost intimate moment with few customers. Contrasting the crisp white linens of the bartenders with the deep colors that saturate the remainder of the painting, Sloan relays a sense of a modest yet dignified neighborhood bar establishment.

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George Bellows’ Cliff Dwellers (1915)

One of Robert Henri’s most talented students, George Bellows devoted much of his artistic career to conjuring scenes of New York City, where he set up his studio in the late 1940s. The power of Bellows’ painting stems from his honest and often gritty observations of New York City life, which can be seen in Cliff Dwellers. Revealing the bustling scene of a New York City neighborhood street, Geroge Bellows’ Cliff Dwellers takes its name from the artist’s attempts to draw the viewer’s attention to the idea that his work is almost a documentary account of a bustling lower-class New York street. Laundry hangs between the buildings and children crowd the streets in a raw and raucous view of urban life.

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Admiring the Authenticity of Ashcan School Painters

The loose association between Ashcan School painters meant that the rather rapid dissolution of the group was almost inevitable. Nevertheless, the influence of their artistic ideas was felt well into the 20th century as subsequent generations of artists sought out similar energy in their paintings. Collectors today continue to admire the Ashcan School for the honesty of their work, both for its documentation of a past era and its elements that still resonate in the contemporary world.