Family Group

1910/1911

William Glackens

Painter, American, 1870 - 1938

Media Options

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William Glackens is primarily remembered as a member of the eclectic group of artists called The Eight, many of whom were attracted to urban realist subjects. This bright, intimate autobiographical painting is indebted to French impressionism and the work of Auguste Renoir. A modern conversation piece and one of the artist’s most ambitious compositions, Family Group constitutes an informal group portrait that represents, from left to right, the artist’s sister-in-law Irene Dimock; his wife, Edith Dimock Glackens; his son and future biographer, Ira Glackens; and Edith’s lifelong friend Grace Dwight Morgan all assembled in the living room of the Glackens’ New York apartment at 23 Fifth Avenue. In addition to recording the likenesses of the sitters, the painting serves as a documentary record of the family’s personal relationships, surroundings, and possessions.

Family Group was featured in New York in 1913 at the Armory Show, an exhibition that introduced various aspects of European modernism to a popular audience in the United States. A critic praised it as “one of the most radiant, courageous, color paintings America has produced . . . it has grace, humanity and the quality that the artists call painting.”

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ira Glackens

  • Dimensions

    overall: 182.8 x 213.3 cm (71 15/16 x 84 in.)
    framed: 200.7 x 231.1 x 7 cm (79 x 91 x 2 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1971.12.1

More About this Artwork

This nearly square painting shows an industrial area with buildings, storage silos, a smokestack, and railroad tracks. A mound of brown dirt or other material is in shadow in the lower left corner of the painting. Next to the mound, railroad tracks extend diagonally from the lower center of the painting into the distance to our right. The tracks end at a white building with staggered gray rooflines to our right in the distance. A tall terracotta-red smokestack rises high beyond the white building, smoke pouring out of its top and blending into the clouds above. Just beyond the mound of dirt, piles of white material, perhaps in unseen bins, line the railroad track to our left and lead back to a row ten interconnected, coral-orange silos. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting, and it is lined with a row of long white and gray warehouses. The artist signed and dated the work with brown paint in the lower right corner: “Sheeler 31.”

Scholarly Series:  American Paintings, 1900–1945

Scholarly Article:  American Paintings, 1900–1945: Family Group, 1910/1911

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist [1870-1938], New York; by inheritance to his wife, Edith Dimock Glackens [d. 1955], New York and Hartford; by inheritance to their son, Ira Glackens [1907-1990], Center Conway, New Hampshire, and Washington, D.C.; gift 1971 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1913

  • International Exhibition of Modern Art [The Armory Show], Association of American Painters and Sculptors, Armory of the Sixty-Ninth Infantry, New York, 1913, no. 853 (not shown in Chicago or Boston).

1914

  • One Hundred and Ninth Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1914, no. 462.

1915

  • Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915, no. 2468.

1937

  • New York Realists 1900-1914, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1937, no. 61, repro.

1938

  • William Glackens Memorial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1938-1939, no. 61, repro.

1939

  • Memorial Exhibition of Works by William J. Glackens, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1939, no. 14, repro.

1942

  • 20th Century Portraits, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1942, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1945

  • Artists of the Philadelphia Press: William Glackens, George Luks, Everett Shinn, John Sloan, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1945, no. 9, repro.

1955

  • The One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniverary Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1955, no. 210.

1957

  • Face of America: The History of Portraiture in the United States, Brooklyn Museum, 1957-1958, no. 82, repro.

1963

  • 1913 Armory Show - 50th Anniversary Exhibition, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica; Armory of the Sixty-ninth Regiment, New York, 1963, no. 853 (catalogue uses original Armory Show numbers).

1966

  • William Glackens in Retrospect, City Art Museum of St. Louis; National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C.; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1966-1967, no. 33, repro.

1984

  • 25th Anniversary Exhibition: Selected American Paintings 1750-1950, The Westmoreland County Museum of Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, 1984, no. 48, pl. 76.

1991

  • Painters of a New Century: The Eight, Milwaukee Art Museum; The Denver Art Museum; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Brooklyn Museum, 1991-1992, no. 69, repro. (not shown in Ottawa).

2002

  • Idol of the Moderns: Pierre-Auguste Renoir and American Painting, San Diego Museum of Art; El Paso Museum of Art, 2002-2003, no cat.

2008

  • Face Forward: American Portraits from Sargent to the Present, Vero Beach Museum of Art, 2008, no catalogue.

2013

  • The New Spirit: American Art in the Armory Show, 1913, Montclair Art Museum, 2013, no. 15, repro.

2014

  • William Glackens, Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale; The Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York; The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, 2014-2015, pl. 39.

Bibliography

1931

  • Pène du Bois, Guy. William J. Glackens. New York, 1931: fig. 40.

1955

  • De Gregorio, Vincent John. "The Life and Art of William J. Glackens." Ph. D. dissertation,The Ohio State University, 1955, Columbus,OH, 1955: 238, 242, pl. LIX.

1957

  • Glackens, Ira. William Glackens and the Ashcan Group: the Emergence of Realism in American Art. New York, 1957: 139, color repro.

1972

  • Conroy, Sara Booth. "For Ira Glackens, A Father's Shadow is a Happy Place to Be." The Washington Post Potomac Magazine (27 February 1972): 15.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 165, repro.

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 148, repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: color repro. 168, 207-8.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 572, no. 872, color repro.

1988

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 170, repro.

1991

  • Milroy, Elizabeth. Painters of a New Century: The Eight & American Art. Exh. cat. Milwaukee Art Museum, traveling exhibition. Milwaukee, 1991: 175, 180, no. 69.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 187, repro.

1996

  • Gerdts, William H. William Glackens. Fort Lauderdale, FL, and New York, 1996: 87, 92-94, 119, 147.

2013

  • May, Stephen. "The New Spirit: American Art in The Armory Show, 1913." Antiques and the Arts Weekly (1 March 2013): 64, repro.

  • Meckelenburg, Virgina M. "Slouching toward Modernism: American Art at the Armory Show." In The Armory Show at 100: Modernism and Revolution. Marylin Kushner and Kimberley Orcutt, eds., Exh. cat. The New York Historical Society Museum and Library, New York, 2013: 249, 443, repro.

2014

  • Berman, Avis, et al. William Glackens. New York, 2014: 85, 101, color plate no. 39, 112.

Inscriptions

lower right: W. Glackens

Wikidata ID

Q20191356

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