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Lot Essay
In the Corner is an important Ashcan work that demonstrates George Luks direct representation of early twentieth-century American life. His aim, and that of his contemporaries in “The Eight,” was to paint his native environment and capture the authentic spirit of the lives of his subjects. The children depicted in In the Corner are painted with the directness and vitality of Luks’ best works and, as Mahonri Sharp Young succinctly explained the artist’s primary motivation, “He doesn’t paint form, he paints life.” (The Eight, New York, 1973, p. 125)
In the first decades of the twentieth century, the American landscape was changing dramatically as populations shifted to cities following the Industrial Revolution. The demographics within American cities also went through a rapid diversification due to increased immigration, especially evident in New York City. Luks was raised in a mining community outside of Philadelphia, and his empathy for the underclass immigrant communities in New York and impoverished children may partly stem from his upbringing. His parents were immigrants, from Poland and Bavaria, and his father, Emil Luks, was a physician who often treated needy children. The artist started painting immigrant children, particularly of the working and lower classes, in New York’s Lower East Side neighborhood in 1899. Luks “had a real feeling for the wretchedness of life and the unlikeliness of it all.” (The Eight, p. 122) Luks was also filled with personal turmoil, as he struggled with an addiction to alcohol throughout his life, which ultimately contributed to his death from a bar fight. The artist’s alcoholism, while contributing to his boisterous and sometimes disorderly personality, did not impact his brilliance and talent evident in works such as In the Corner: “In our culture, drinking and talent have an affinity, and Luks wasn’t destroyed by alcohol; his brain didn’t get addled and he didn’t lose his talent.” (The Eight, p. 122)
Luks was a member of a group of American artists known as “The Eight,” accompanied by Everett Shinn, John Sloan, Ernest Lawson, Maurice Prendergast, William Glackens, Arthur B. Davies and Robert Henri, all of whom found inspiration in authentic, American, urban subject matter and revolted against the Impressionist aesthetic of the earlier generation, the strict policies of the National Academy of Design and the concurrently forming abstractionist movement influenced by European modernism. The instigation that ultimately brought this group of independent artists together was the rejection of a portrait by Luks for the 1907 exhibition of the National Academy of Design, and in January of 1908 “The Eight” held their first group exhibition—a milestone in the history of American art. The principles and influence of “The Eight” came to expand and become known as the Ashcan movement. Within the original group of eight, the “Philadelphia Four” of Sloan, Glackens, Shinn and Luks were followers of Robert Henri, and Henri’s influence is evident especially in Luks' style and technique. Although Luks remained true to Henri’s style, he would not readily admit the inspiration; as Young noted, “He disliked being in Henri’s shadow. He thought Henri gave himself airs and pretentions. He considered himself a great man in his own right, and when he said the world never had but two artists, Frans Hals and little old George Luks, he wasn’t joking. He didn’t consider Henri his father.” (The Eight, p. 112) The parallels, however, are strong and obvious in both artists’ primarily neutral toned palettes, dramatic chiaroscuro effects between highlighted figures and dark backgrounds and frequent portrayal of children. For example, a portrait of George Luks that was painted circa 1904 by Henri (National Gallery of Canada, Ottowa, Canada) shows a similar, vigorous handling of the medium also seen in In the Corner, and a similar placement of a full-length figure close to the viewer in the picture plane against a background of dark browns. This style harkens back to an influence of Dutch and Spanish Old Masters, who influenced both artists’ work. Both Henri’s portrait of Luks and Luks' In the Corner are also imbued strongly with the spirit of the sitters; capturing the liveliness of their subject’s personality was a hallmark aim of both artists and in portraiture of the Ashcan school.
In the Corner portrays two young children in a picture gallery, likely in New York. The girl leans in with her arm around the boy to whisper something that provokes his grin. The girl’s fine red dress and hat, which are painted in a vivid orangey-red, suggest that she comes from a more fortunate background than her male friend. The scale of the image, with the figures taking up much of the picture plane, along with the closeness of the figures in the foreground, adds to the immediacy of the viewer’s experience of the scene. In the Corner is not a trite sentimental depiction or meant to invoke pity for the underprivileged class of the boy. Rather, Luks has captured in the children’s interaction a moment of genuine emotion and human connection, despite their apparent difference in socio-economic background. Vincent DiGirolamo wrote of this theme: “Most Ashcan painters addressed the poverty, squalor, and injustice around them only obliquely through their images of laundresses, dockworkers, ragpickers, street urchins, and the homeless. Yet more often than not, they brought out the humor and joie de vivre of humble scenes and people. This tendency does not make them hopeless romantics; to capture humor and joy is to apprehend genuine aspects of reality.” (“New York in an Age of Amusement,” Life’s Pleasures: The Ashcan Artists’ Brush with Leisure, 1895-1925, London, 2007, p. 71)
The joie de vivre theme evident in In the Corner is found throughout Ashcan masterworks, such as Luks’ own The Spielers of 1905 (Addison Gallery of American Art, The Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts). The Spielers is a scene of two girls dancing in the street and has the same liveliness of In the Corner. Elizabeth Luther Cary has described The Spielers as, “two children dancing in the street, the color warm, bright bodices, dingy skirts, boots down at heel, mouths distended in the unbridled laughter that from time immemorial has heralded youth, red hair and yellow hair flying, and all about these joyous dancers, embracing them, caressing them, shifting away from them, a dim floating atmosphere lending to the total effect of a mystery not to be found in the work of other men.” (George Luks, New York, 1931, p. 8) This theme and subject of children were prominent throughout Luks' oeuvre and his style remained very consistent, as evident in the strong similarities between The Spielers and In the Corner, which was painted from 1920-21. George Bellows, another leading Ashcan artist, also painted works similar in subject to In the Corner. Kids by Bellows (1906, Private Collection) depicts a group of boys and girls on the street in the Lower East Side playing and joking around with each other. The scene is gritty, yet the spirit of the children’s enjoyment from their simple social engagement shines through the grim environment.
In the Corner is a powerful example of George Luks' mastery of painting city life in a dynamic period of change to the urban American landscape. “His streets are grimmer than Henri’s, and his characters are more vivid,” and, “All the Philadelphia bunch could paint the New York streets, but only Luks could paint the people.” (The Eight, pp. 112, 122) The merriment on the young boy’s face and delightful interaction between these two children in In the Corner is a faithful depiction of the moment Luks captured, and also resonates as a timeless scene of children’s innocent joy for life.
In the first decades of the twentieth century, the American landscape was changing dramatically as populations shifted to cities following the Industrial Revolution. The demographics within American cities also went through a rapid diversification due to increased immigration, especially evident in New York City. Luks was raised in a mining community outside of Philadelphia, and his empathy for the underclass immigrant communities in New York and impoverished children may partly stem from his upbringing. His parents were immigrants, from Poland and Bavaria, and his father, Emil Luks, was a physician who often treated needy children. The artist started painting immigrant children, particularly of the working and lower classes, in New York’s Lower East Side neighborhood in 1899. Luks “had a real feeling for the wretchedness of life and the unlikeliness of it all.” (The Eight, p. 122) Luks was also filled with personal turmoil, as he struggled with an addiction to alcohol throughout his life, which ultimately contributed to his death from a bar fight. The artist’s alcoholism, while contributing to his boisterous and sometimes disorderly personality, did not impact his brilliance and talent evident in works such as In the Corner: “In our culture, drinking and talent have an affinity, and Luks wasn’t destroyed by alcohol; his brain didn’t get addled and he didn’t lose his talent.” (The Eight, p. 122)
Luks was a member of a group of American artists known as “The Eight,” accompanied by Everett Shinn, John Sloan, Ernest Lawson, Maurice Prendergast, William Glackens, Arthur B. Davies and Robert Henri, all of whom found inspiration in authentic, American, urban subject matter and revolted against the Impressionist aesthetic of the earlier generation, the strict policies of the National Academy of Design and the concurrently forming abstractionist movement influenced by European modernism. The instigation that ultimately brought this group of independent artists together was the rejection of a portrait by Luks for the 1907 exhibition of the National Academy of Design, and in January of 1908 “The Eight” held their first group exhibition—a milestone in the history of American art. The principles and influence of “The Eight” came to expand and become known as the Ashcan movement. Within the original group of eight, the “Philadelphia Four” of Sloan, Glackens, Shinn and Luks were followers of Robert Henri, and Henri’s influence is evident especially in Luks' style and technique. Although Luks remained true to Henri’s style, he would not readily admit the inspiration; as Young noted, “He disliked being in Henri’s shadow. He thought Henri gave himself airs and pretentions. He considered himself a great man in his own right, and when he said the world never had but two artists, Frans Hals and little old George Luks, he wasn’t joking. He didn’t consider Henri his father.” (The Eight, p. 112) The parallels, however, are strong and obvious in both artists’ primarily neutral toned palettes, dramatic chiaroscuro effects between highlighted figures and dark backgrounds and frequent portrayal of children. For example, a portrait of George Luks that was painted circa 1904 by Henri (National Gallery of Canada, Ottowa, Canada) shows a similar, vigorous handling of the medium also seen in In the Corner, and a similar placement of a full-length figure close to the viewer in the picture plane against a background of dark browns. This style harkens back to an influence of Dutch and Spanish Old Masters, who influenced both artists’ work. Both Henri’s portrait of Luks and Luks' In the Corner are also imbued strongly with the spirit of the sitters; capturing the liveliness of their subject’s personality was a hallmark aim of both artists and in portraiture of the Ashcan school.
In the Corner portrays two young children in a picture gallery, likely in New York. The girl leans in with her arm around the boy to whisper something that provokes his grin. The girl’s fine red dress and hat, which are painted in a vivid orangey-red, suggest that she comes from a more fortunate background than her male friend. The scale of the image, with the figures taking up much of the picture plane, along with the closeness of the figures in the foreground, adds to the immediacy of the viewer’s experience of the scene. In the Corner is not a trite sentimental depiction or meant to invoke pity for the underprivileged class of the boy. Rather, Luks has captured in the children’s interaction a moment of genuine emotion and human connection, despite their apparent difference in socio-economic background. Vincent DiGirolamo wrote of this theme: “Most Ashcan painters addressed the poverty, squalor, and injustice around them only obliquely through their images of laundresses, dockworkers, ragpickers, street urchins, and the homeless. Yet more often than not, they brought out the humor and joie de vivre of humble scenes and people. This tendency does not make them hopeless romantics; to capture humor and joy is to apprehend genuine aspects of reality.” (“New York in an Age of Amusement,” Life’s Pleasures: The Ashcan Artists’ Brush with Leisure, 1895-1925, London, 2007, p. 71)
The joie de vivre theme evident in In the Corner is found throughout Ashcan masterworks, such as Luks’ own The Spielers of 1905 (Addison Gallery of American Art, The Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts). The Spielers is a scene of two girls dancing in the street and has the same liveliness of In the Corner. Elizabeth Luther Cary has described The Spielers as, “two children dancing in the street, the color warm, bright bodices, dingy skirts, boots down at heel, mouths distended in the unbridled laughter that from time immemorial has heralded youth, red hair and yellow hair flying, and all about these joyous dancers, embracing them, caressing them, shifting away from them, a dim floating atmosphere lending to the total effect of a mystery not to be found in the work of other men.” (George Luks, New York, 1931, p. 8) This theme and subject of children were prominent throughout Luks' oeuvre and his style remained very consistent, as evident in the strong similarities between The Spielers and In the Corner, which was painted from 1920-21. George Bellows, another leading Ashcan artist, also painted works similar in subject to In the Corner. Kids by Bellows (1906, Private Collection) depicts a group of boys and girls on the street in the Lower East Side playing and joking around with each other. The scene is gritty, yet the spirit of the children’s enjoyment from their simple social engagement shines through the grim environment.
In the Corner is a powerful example of George Luks' mastery of painting city life in a dynamic period of change to the urban American landscape. “His streets are grimmer than Henri’s, and his characters are more vivid,” and, “All the Philadelphia bunch could paint the New York streets, but only Luks could paint the people.” (The Eight, pp. 112, 122) The merriment on the young boy’s face and delightful interaction between these two children in In the Corner is a faithful depiction of the moment Luks captured, and also resonates as a timeless scene of children’s innocent joy for life.