At the opening of a new century, American painter and illustrator Everett Shinn made a pilgrimage to the artists' Mecca, Paris, where he rendered this simple street scene in watercolor and charcoal on paper. The door that serves as the centerpiece of the work might well represent the threshhold of a promising and challenging new period in history, much as we face today at the opening of a new millennium. The work inspires us to ask, what lies behind the door?

Widely regarded as a key member of the "Ashcan School" of American artists, Everett Shinn was the youngest of eight children born to a Quaker family in Woodstown, New Jersey. His wide-ranging talents emerged early in life. At 15 years of age he designed and built a working steam engine and enrolled in mechanical drawing classes and shop training. At the age of 17, Shinn was hired as an illustrator with the Philadelphia Press, where he first met George Luks, William Glackens, John Sloan, and through them, Robert Henri � the artists who would become famous as the "Ashcan School." With the addition of painters Arthur B. Davies, Maurice Prendergast, and Ernest Lawton, the group also became known as "The Eight." George Bellows and Edward Hopper are often considered members of the Ashcan School, as well.

These artists, "bunched together like the fingers and thumb of a fist�struck a mighty blow for artistic freedom of worship, and pushed American art into the quickened tempo of the modern age."¹ The group, called variously the "New York Realists" and the "Black Gang" because of their strong use of black in their works, drew much inspiration from the works of earlier European masters such as Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Diego Vel�squez, and Francisco Goya. But their subject matter was strictly, and often controversially, contemporary. The Ashcan School specialized in �urban landscapes' of street scenes, slums, the poor, and immigrants, offering a sharp and often shocking contrast with the genteelism that had characterized much of late-19th century American painting.

In 1897 Shinn became the first of the Ashcan painters to move to New York, first working as an illustrator for the World and the Herald newspapers, and then turning to magazine illustration. The trip to Paris during which he painted "The Door" introduced Shinn to both the theatre and impressionism � two influences that would, for both the better and the worse, mark his work for the remainder of his life. He became an avid fan of Edgar Degas, not only for his rendering skill and his adept use of pastels, but also for his subject matter, which included actresses and dancers. Mahonri Sharp Young writes: "He was the only one of the group who felt the attraction of pretty actresses, great ladies, and rich men. He was dazzled by the rich just as he was dazzled by women and the theater."²

Shinn's love of the theatre went far beyond painting its players. He built a small stage in his Waverly Street studio in New York where he regularly acted in original shows with a company of friends he called the Waverly Street Players. He also served as playwright, director, producer, and set designer. Shinn also decorated the interior of his friend David Belasco's Stuyvesant Theatre in New York, and worked as an art direc-tor for Goldwyn Pictures, Inspiration Pictures, and William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Pictures during the period 1917-1923.

Shinn's multiplicity of interests and talents may have diluted his concentration on painting and fine art, to the detriment of his work. "Shinn was a man of many talents, and it was perhaps just this virtuosity which was his artistic undoing."³ Although considered the weakest of the Ashcan School of painters, Shinn did produce a number of fine works, including "The Door." His work was good enough to warrant an invitation to submit pieces for the 1913 Armory Show � an invitation he declined, perhaps due to his preoccupation with art direction and theatre work. Shinn almost certainly did not realize the significance that this groundbreaking art show would have on the aesthetics of the 20th century.

Author Theodore Dreiser, a close friend of Shinn's, reportedly used Shinn as the model for his bohemian artist-character Eugene Witla in the 1915 novel, The Genius. Shinn was elected to full membership in the National Academy of Design in 1943. The youngest and last surviving member of the Ashcan School, Everett Shinn died in New York in 1953, at age seventy-six.

Rebecca Mashaw
JMCP Articles Editor

  References
1. Eliot A. Three hundred years of American painting. New York: Time, Inc., 1957.
2. Young MS The eight: the realist revolt in American painting. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1973.
3. Brown MW The story of the armory show. New York: Abbeville Press, 1988.