Ash Can School
   
In the opening decade of the 20th century, a group of New York realists replaced the dictum of "art for art's sake" with a new philosophy, "art for life's sake." Led by Robert Henri, the men of the so-called Ash Can School treated themes new to American Art: the streets and the tenements of the city. This approach to art was shocking to some and deplorable to others. Henri and his revolutionary "black gang," as hostile critics dubbed them, succeeded in gaining acceptance for their work, though their place at the vanguard was short-lived.

The Young Girl belongs to a little-known group of paintings of nudes by Henri from the mid-teens to the early 1920s. They were posed, for the most part, by professional models and were executed as a means of studying the human body. In paintings such as this, Henri does not attempt to evoke associational values or use the girl's facial expression to establish rapport with the viewer. She serves instead as a vehicle with which to explore the more abstract qualities of rhythm, color, and volume.
This celebration of male companionship attests to Sloan's conviction that the real artist finds beauty in common things. Sloan often stopped at this New York neighborhood saloon, fascinated by the range of humanity he found there. McSorley's Old Ale House retains this mood and character even today, with one notable change; in 1970 protests by feminists put an end to what had for over one hundred years been an exclusively male domain.

George Bellows was a realist with a technique perfectly adapted to his frank impressions. An amateur ballplayer, he maintained a life-long interest in sports, and his paintings of polo matches and prize-fight rings are often considered his finest work. The crowds in attendance at the fights were presented in summary fashion, since they were mere accessories to the main event, but they were not the only crowds Bellows painted. As is evident here, he became singularly expert at conveying the sense of motion of a crowd, in this case a group of elegant New Yorkers enjoying a late afternoon outing in Central Park. In the background is the symbol of the 20th-century American city--a skyscraper.