WILLIAM GLACKENS (AMERICAN 1870–1938) "GLOUCESTER BATH HOUSE"

Inscribed 'W.G./By E.G.' verso, oil on panel
6 1/4 x 8 in. (15.9 x 20.3cm)

Provenance: The Artist.
The Estate of the Artist.
Surovek Gallery, Palm Beach, California.
Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, New York.
Private Collection, New Jersey.
EXHIBITED:
"William Glackens, American Impressionist," Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, New York, November 20, 2003-January 3, 2004.
NOTE:
Images of summer leisure were a predominant theme in the work of many American Impressionists, including Maurice Prendergast. From the summers of 1911 through the 1916, Glackens and his family spent their time in a number of resort towns along the East coast. The generosity of the family of Edith, the wife of the artist, eased the financial situation of the young couple, allowing them to rent cottages by the sea in Cape Cod, Bellport, Rhode Island, and Gloucester. The series of paintings that Glackens executed during these summers are considered among his finest, as they reveal his joyful exploration of new painting techniques and the development of his own style of Impressionism.
In "Gloucester Bath House," Glackens employs the brilliant colors and feathery brushwork characteristic of his fully developed sketch-like style. Through the dramatic, yet harmonious, sun-drenched colors, the painting conveys a sense of plenitude and happiness, which the artist evidently felt when he painted this colorful view. True to his Impressionist roots, Glackens seems to have painted the work en plein-air. He defines the contrasting shapes of the bathhouse via energetic brushstrokes, which reveal his intention to focus on the essential immediacy of the scene.