From Publishers Weekly

Glackens (1870-1938) was a leading American impressionist, a great realist figurative painter and a witty chronicler of urban life; all these aspects of his work are on full display in this vibrantly illustrated study. It catalogues the amazing Glackens Collection of the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, to which Ira Glackens, the artist's son, bequeathed more than 400 of his father's artworks in 1990. The Philadelphia-born painter's mainstream impressionist pictures, made under the influence of Renoir beginning around 1910, look sensuous yet stilted. Much more convincing are his gritty Paris street scenes (1895-1896) and the poetic, magical renditions of ephemeral urban and suburban pleasures made in and around New York City. In his engaging essay, City University of New York art history professor Gerdts, an authority on American impressionism, shows how Glackens's embrace of the incisive Ashcan school realism of The Eight, a group that also included John Sloan and Maurice Prendergast, flowed from his experience as a freelance illustrator and artist-reporter. Santis, the museum's curator, provides selective commentary on individual works.

Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Glackens, perhaps the most sublime of the artists collected under the rubrics "The Eight" or the "Ashcan School," worked in an idiom that echoed the work of Manet and Renoir. Though his work is less well known than that of his friend, John Sloan, it lies at the heart of American Impressionism. Gerdts, one of the foremost historians in the field of American art (Art Across America, LJ 12/90), has written extensively on Impressionism in the past (American Impressionism, 1980). His critical biographical essay on Glackens is informative and provides a good basic background for the artist's work. The heart of this particular volume, however, is the catalog (and complementary essay) by Jorge H. Santis of the nearly 500 works that form the Glackens Collection of the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the most comprehensive collection of the artist's work. Extensively illustrated, this work is highly recommended for larger collections of American art.?Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Arlington, Va.

Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.