Everett Shinn
Everett Shinn
1876 - 1953
American painter, illustrator, designer, playwright, and film director. He studied industrial design at the Spring Garden School in Philadelphia from 1888 to 1890. In 1893 he became an illustrator at the Philadelphia Press. Simultaneously he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, where he met Robert Henri, John Sloan, William J. Glackens, and George Luks. Their style of urban realism prompted him to depict the bleak aspects of city life. In 1897 Shinn moved to New York and produced illustrations for several newspapers and magazines, for example Mark Twain (March 1900; see Perlman, p. 80), a frontispiece for The Critic. He also drew sketches for a novel by William Dean Howells on New York; although the novel was not published, Shinn’s drawings brought him national recognition.
Shinn’s work changed radically when, on a trip to Paris in 1901, he was inspired by the theatre scenes of Manet, Degas, and Jean-Louis Forain. He began to paint performers in action, from unusual vantage points, as in London Hippodrome (1902; Chicago, IL, A. Inst.). Shinn was also influenced by Rococo painting in his choice of motifs for the decorations of the Belasco Theatre, New York (1907), and for private homes.
In the first decade of the century, Shinn held several one-man shows; he also participated in the exhibition by THE EIGHT (II) at the Macbeth Galleries, New York (1908), and the exhibition of Independent Artists in New York (1910). In 1911 he painted murals for Trenton City Hall, NJ, which were unusual in their depiction of labourers at work, rather than the allegorical or historical figures typical of other contemporary cycles. Despite his success, in 1913 Shinn abandoned painting to become a playwright, film director, and interior designer. Most of his literary projects failed, however, and eventually Shinn resorted to commercial art, which occupied him until his death. [Janet Marstine. " Shinn, Everett." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed September 11, 2014, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T078275.]
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