AMERICAN SCENE PAINTERS

1900 - 1960s

American painter Robert Henri studied with the Impressionists in Paris. As art started to turn in more abstract directions, he declared: “art could not be separated from life.” Back in America he became fascinated by urban landscapes and made friends with a number of like-minded artists. Their loose alliance was known as the Ashcan School. The original eight members included Henri, William Glackens, George Luks, Everett Shinn, John Sloan, Arthur Davies, Ernest Lawson and Maurice Prendergast. Together they were known as “The Eight.”

These artists painted gritty urban scenes very much in the tradition of great American artists like Remington, who painted scenes of western America, and the Hudson River School of artists, known for their bucolic landscapes.

The Armory Show of 1913 was a seminal event concerning modern art in America. It was the first major American showcase of the avant-garde modern art that was catching fire in Europe. More traditional American artists were aghast at what European art had become and the direction it was heading. America’s isolationist tendencies caused many artists to look for an American art form that was different from the European modernism sweeping the continent. They wanted something distinctly American.

American Scene painters filled the gap quite nicely. Working in more traditional styles and building on the work of the Ashcan artists and the realists before them, American Scene painters did exactly what their name implies. They painted everyday scenes of an America just starting to flex its muscles. Since most of these painters concentrated on scenes from their local area, they are often referred to as Regionalists. Some American Scene painters ventured into social commentary lending a certain caricature or quasi-propaganda quality to their work.

Among the most prominent American Scene painters was Edward Hopper, a student of Robert Henri. He painted in a much more classic realism style, often referred to as “Precisionism.” His isolated, lonely urban scenes captured the human reaction to America’s rapid industrialization. Norman Rockwell brought small-town life in New England to the world. Grant Wood painted scenes from Iowa. Romare Bearden did the same from both Harlem and the South. Thomas Hart Benton depicted life in Missouri and the Ozarks on canvas. Clyde Singer became a favorite in northeast Ohio as was Charles Burchfield, before his art took on mystical qualities.

American Scene painting lost favor in the late 1950s, overwhelmed by the growing popularity of other modern art movements. However, their brand of realism and story-telling never completely disappeared from the art scene.