Clown, oil on canvas on board; 7.5 by 5.5 inches (image); 15 by 13 inches (with frame), s.l.l.

In New York, Shinn was attracted to realistic scenes of urban life and the theatre. A playwright himself, Shinn’s association with the theatre dictated much of his subject matter throughout his life. In 1899, the artist went to Europe, where he probably experienced first-hand the theatrical scenes of Manet and of Degas, whose style greatly influenced his own. In his later life, Shinn served as art director for Metro Goldwyn Mayer, designed theatrical backdrops, and formed his own theatre company.

The artists association with “The Eight” – or the Ashcan School – came in 1908 when he exhibited with Luks, Glackens, and the others at New York’s Macbeth Galleries. The youngest member of the “Ashcan School,” as the group came to be called, Shinn’s broad and rapid brushwork seemed to embody the pace of the large American city in the dawning twentieth century. The artist died in NYC in 1953.

Everett Shinn’s work can be found in most important collections of American art, including the Corcoran Gallery, the Albright-Knox Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Phillips Collection, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Brooklyn Museum.