The day after 1906

Louis Glackens made this ink drawing, probably as a print, capturing a scene at an exchange desk. The color palette is muted, earthy, like faded memories, and the marks are quick, gestural, almost impatient. Look at the frantic energy he conveys with just a few lines, a scribble here, a dab there. It reminds me that artmaking is often about capturing a fleeting moment, a feeling, rather than striving for perfect representation. The texture is flat, smooth, betraying its origin as a commercial print, but within that constraint, Glackens manages to create depth and movement, especially in the sea of hats! It's a jumble, a scrum, a real chaotic scene, so look at how he uses hatching and cross-hatching to build up the forms. See the woman in the center, her face partially obscured by a giant feathered hat? That’s kind of how the piece works as a whole: a collection of hidden stories and incomplete narratives. Glackens’s work calls to mind some of the French Impressionists, maybe Toulouse-Lautrec, in his ability to capture the essence of a crowd, but with an American sensibility. Art is never a solo act; it’s an ongoing conversation across time, across cultures, and across mediums.