The Ashcan’s Joie de Vivre: Life, Leisure and Detroit

Philadelphia newspapermen William Glackens, George Luks, Everett Shinn, John Sloan and their artistic mentor, Robert Henri formed the core of the Ashcan School. However, this so called “school” drew from a far more expansive group that embraced Henri’s thoughts on and approach to painting. Thus, the Ashcan school was not an organized institution, yet a group of artists linked through a philosophy of shared ideas. Henri advocated “a realism” inspiration by the immediate world. He encouraged his students and followers to use as subjects the world as they found it, thus absorb “the great ideas native to his country”.