Existing comment:
George Luks, 1867-1933
"He is Puck. He is Caliban. He is Falstaff," said art critic James Gibbons Huneker of George Luks, who was as famous for his gutsy personality as for his energetic paintings of urban life. William Glackens suggested Luks's mercurial temperament with rapid brushwork in this 1899 painting when the two were roommates in New York City. Along with Glackens, Robert Henri, John Sloan, and Everett Shinn, Luks, who began his career as a newspaper illustrator, chose to depict the unglamorous -- and sometimes sordid -- reality of urban life. Initially, disapproving critics dubbed them the Ashcan School. Walter Pach, organizer of the Armory Show, was a great supporter of both Luks and Glackens, and helped promote the artists in critical reviews. Pach began his interaction with Luks years before the Armory Show, when he encouraged the artist to capture the contemporary life of the United States, just as Édouard Manet had attempted with success in Paris.
William Glackens, 1899 |