Everett Shinn

Everett Shinn (Woodstown, New Jersey, 1876 - New York, 1953) was an American painter of urban realism and a member of the Ashcan School, the youngest of the group known as "The Eight". He matters because he brought the modern life of big cities into painting, with street scenes, fires, street violence and performances.

Born in a Quaker-dominated community, he trained at the Spring Garden Institute in Philadelphia and later at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied under Thomas Anschutz. Before devoting himself to painting, he worked as an illustrator for the Philadelphia Press and, from 1897, for the New York World. That newspaper work gave him a remarkable skill in rendering movement, which he carried into his canvases.

His work pairs a luminous technique with influences from Post-Impressionism and Degas. Theatrical scenes seen from unusual angles recur, as in London Hippodrome (1902) or Trapeze, Winter Garden, New York (1903). He was also the only Ashcan artist to work extensively in pastel. On commission he produced murals and decorative schemes for houses by Stanford White and Elsie de Wolfe, and for David Belasco's Stuyvesant Theatre, today the Belasco Theatre.

The Great Depression brought him serious financial losses, and he sold very few paintings. After 1937 he received several awards and took part in a number of exhibitions. He died of lung cancer in New York in 1953. He is reportedly a model for the protagonist of Theodore Dreiser's novel The "Genius", though that claim should be treated with caution. His legacy is tied to the Ashcan School and to his portrayal of urban life and public entertainment.