Eight Figures

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

Glackens probably made these sketches on the streets of New York City, capturing on-the-spot impressions of sidewalk traffic. Eight women dressed in overcoats walk with varying degrees of determination and leisure. One carries parcels; another's skirt billows in the wind. Each subject is depicted alone, except for a pair in matching hoods and cloak, who lean in toward each other as they proceed. Glackens was, according to fellow artist and critic Guy Pène du Bois, "the father of the present school of illustrating," whose "notations on the life around him... fulfilled characters [even in] scenes but half drawn." Glackens defined each figure with crisp, shorthand notations, a style that he had developed while working as an artist-reporter for Philadelphia newspapers upon graduating from Central High School in 1890.

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