:::Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts::: Artists

William Glackens ( 1870-1938 )

	Dubourg Drew from His Basket His Mechanical Syringe - 1902 Charcoal, gouache4 and white chalk on paper 12 ½ x 18 ½ inches Signed (at bottom center): W. Glackens Print Click image for detailed view Contact the Gallery for more information
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Provenance:

Private collection, New York

Exhibited:

William Glackens: American Impressionist, Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, November 20, 2003 - January 3, 2004, pp. 10, 42, 96 and p. 43, pl. 4 illus.

Recorded:

Gerdts, William H. William Glackens, Fort Lauderdale: Museum of Art in association with Abbeville Press, p. 235, illus. of photogravure.

Allyn, Nancy E. and Hawkes, Elizabeth H. William Glackens: A Catalogue of His Book and Magazine Illustrations. Wilmington: Delaware Art Museum, 1987.

This drawing was used as an illustration for Charles-Paul de Kock’s Sister Anne, Gervais ed. Boston: Quinby, 1902, Vol. 2, frontispiece. The full title is Dubourg Drew from his Basket his Mechanical Syringe, Which He Had Filled with Barège Water.

Born in 1870 in Philadelphia, William Glackens began his career in art as a commercial illustrator, often working alongside his contemporaries George Luks, John Sloan and Everett Shinn. These artists would later study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with Glackens's friend, the painter Robert Henri, who taught his students to concentrate on the grittier aspects of urban life, using a dark palette and a painting technique consisting of swift, muscular strokes in an effort to make their art reflect the spontaneity of real life. This technique met with criticism and even sneering derision by the established art world in New York. In 1907 the National Academy of Design refused to include the work of Glackens and his peers in an important exhibition. In response, eight artists, including Glackens, Luks, Shinn and Sloan, arranged a group show at the MacBeth Gallery in 1908, which proved to be a seminal exhibition in establishing the careers of the participants, who came to be known as "The Eight" and later by one disapproving critic as "The Ashcan School."

In spite of the fortunate financial situation provided by his marriage in 1904, Glackens continued working as an illustrator, likely thriving on the diversity of executing works in various media and with different objectives. The years between 1899 and 1906 mark Glackens’ most prolific phase as an illustrator, in which he produced many superb works filled with vigor and a sense of immediacy. One of his major commissions was to illustrate a compendium of grisette novels by the nineteenth-century French writer Charles Paul de Kock.

The drawing Dubourg Drew from His Basket his Mechanical Syringe is an illustration that accompanies de Kock’s novel Sister Anne, a droll yet sad tale of unbridled love between two naive youths and its subsequent betrayal. Dubourg, the roguish but loyal friend of the chief protagonist Frederic, provides the comic relief in the story and, strangely enough, moral guidance to the other characters. While traveling with Frederic and his tutor in the south of France, he unintentionally becomes separated from his companions and is forced to trek back to Paris on foot. Along the way, he happens upon an unattended donkey that is laden with packages. Calling out for the owner of the animal and receiving no reply, he searches the baskets and discovers a treasure trove of medicinal supplies. With little money in his pocket and a long journey ahead of him, Dubourg, fond of acting, decides to play the role of a quack doctor, and sells the syringes, ointments and pills to the unsuspecting residents of villages en route to Paris.

Glackens’ illustration depicts the ensuing scene. Disguising his identity with the freshly curled wig and rouge that he had also found in the containers, Dubourg arrives in the first village, looming humorously large on the donkey and loudly heralding promises of instantaneous cures. Eager for a dramatic spectacle, he wields the mechanical syringe as if it was a wand and squirts the surrounding crowd with a liquid so odorous that many are forced to pinch their noses. Rendering the scene with swift and intuitive strokes, Glackens skillfully drew out the comical energy of the episode. At the same time, he imaginatively expanded upon the text’s scant verbal clues to give life to a crowd of distinctive characters. Applying his mastery of anatomical accuracy to his penchant for gritty, realistic subject matter, Glackens created an intriguing scene that wonderfully captures the humor and eccentricity of de Kock’s novel.