Beach Side
Artist
William James Glackens
(American, 1870 - 1938)
Date1912-1913
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 26 1/8 x 32 inches (66.36 x 81.28 cm)
Framed: 34 1/2 x 40 3/4 x 3 1/2 inches (87.63 x 103.51 x 8.89 cm)
Framed: 34 1/2 x 40 3/4 x 3 1/2 inches (87.63 x 103.51 x 8.89 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Frances M. Logan
Object number47-109
SignedSigned lower left: W Glackens
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionCottage on shore with two figures on porch. Two swimmers in water, one on dock. About a dozen figures on the beach. Two boats.Exhibition HistoryOrigins: Collecting to Create the Nelson-Atkins, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, August 14, 2021-March 6, 2022.
William Glackens and his family spent the summers between 1911 and 1916 on Long Island at Bellport, New York. Their beach vacations were part of a larger leisure movement at the turn of the 20th century when urban Americans from all economic levels sought relief from increasingly hectic lives. Glackens, who began his career as a newspaper illustrator, was the consummate observer and continually recorded beach life on paper and canvas. He filled 15 pages of a sketchbook with drawings related to Beach Side. He then translated them to this brightly colored, freely painted canvas.
Frances M. Logan (1855-1946), Kansas City, MO, by 1946;
Her bequest to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1947.
NAMA 1959, 256; NAMA 1973, 252; Genre, exh. cat. (Kansas City,
Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1983), 5, 17; Richard J. Watten
maker, “William Glackens’s Beach Scenes at Bellport,” Smithson
ian Studies in American Art 2 (Spring 1988), 82, 85; NAMA 1991,
145; Elizabeth Milroy, Painters of a New Century: The Eight and
American Art, exh. cat. (Milwaukee: Milwaukee Art Museum,
1991), 175, 183; American Impressionism and Realism: The Paint
ing of Modern Life, 1885–1915, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 1994), 120; William H. Gerdts, William Glackens,
exh. cat. (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: Museum of Art; New York: Abbe
ville Press, 1996), 111, 113.
Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1983), 5, 17; Richard J. Watten
maker, “William Glackens’s Beach Scenes at Bellport,” Smithson
ian Studies in American Art 2 (Spring 1988), 82, 85; NAMA 1991,
145; Elizabeth Milroy, Painters of a New Century: The Eight and
American Art, exh. cat. (Milwaukee: Milwaukee Art Museum,
1991), 175, 183; American Impressionism and Realism: The Paint
ing of Modern Life, 1885–1915, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 1994), 120; William H. Gerdts, William Glackens,
exh. cat. (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: Museum of Art; New York: Abbe
ville Press, 1996), 111, 113.
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