Immigrants, Ashcan and Grief at SLAM

 

In the City Park c. 1934 Raphael Soyer - The artist came to New York City in 1912 as one of the many Jewish immigrants who fled persecution and violence in Russia. 

Girl with a Dag, 1914 by Frank Weston Benson (American 1862-1951). Like many artists in his generation he left his teaching duties there to enjoy Summers painting  en plein air. His Summer home was in North Haven, Maine.

Woman Standing Near a Pond 1880 by Edward Mitchell Bannister (American 1828-1901) The artist, an African American stated the descrimination he eperienced multiplied his artistic struggles ten-fold. He became one of the premier landscape artists of his day. He won a bronze at the Philadelphis Centenniel Exposition in 1876.  

Portrait of Charlotte Cram, 1900 by John Singer Sargeant (Ameican born Italy 1856-1925) Painted in his London studio of 7 year old Charlotte.

Young Woman in Green c. 1915 by William J. Glackens (1870-1938) Glackens, a Central high school friend from Philadelphia Alfred C Barnes gave Glackens $20,000 to purchase Art in Paris (he returned with over 30 pieces - the beginning of the infamous Barnes Collection). Glackens was one of the original EIGHT that were of the Ashcan School (lead by Robert Henri and including Prendergast, Lawson, Sloan, Luks)  

Smelt Brook Falls, 1937 by Marsden Hartly (American1877-1943) Hartley lived with Mason family in Nova Scotia when, in 1936, two of his grown sons and a cousin drown in a boating accident. Channeling grief in a series of brooding landscapes and seacapes of which this is one. 

Houston Street, 1917 by George Luks (1867-1933) Luks and others like him were often called the Ashcan School because their works included the grays and soot that spread over the streets. 

Road Down the Palisades c. 1911 by Ernest Lawson (1873-1939) Characteristic of his best landscapes with thickly applied paint the Hudson River is seen beyond the road. 

The Tenth Street Studio, 1880 by William Meritt Chase (1848-1916)  Chase was known as an exponent of Impressionism and as teacher. He established the Chase School which later became the Parsons School of Design.

Betalo Rubino, Dramatic Dancer, 1916 by Robert Henri (Ameican 1865-1929) Henri, a teacher and painter as a young man studied in Paris and identified strongly with the Impressionists. He was born Robert Henry Cozad and was a central figure in the Ashcan School of American Realism (a movement in stark contrast to the idealized and romantized depictions of the Gilden Age.