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William Glackens
American, 1870-1938
At Mouquin's, 1905
Oil on canvas
122.4 x 92.1 cm (48 1/8 x 36 1/4 in.)
Signed, lower left: "W. Glackens"
Friends of American Art Collection, 1925.295
In this vivid painting, William Glackens portrayed the members of his circle at their favorite meeting place, the restaurant Mouquin's in New York City. Jeanne Mouquin, the proprietor's wife, shares a drink with James B. Moore, a wealthy playboy and restaurateur, while the artist's wife, Edith, and art critic Charles Fitzgerald are reflected in the mirror behind them. Jeanne Mouquin is the focal point of the composition; not only did Glackens paint her outfit with eye-catching brushwork, but he also used the mystery of her intent gaze to imbue the work with tension. By combining portraiture and genre painting, the artist avoided clear narrative conventions and helped usher in a mode of painting suited to the uncertainties of modern urban life. However, the unusually candid depiction of drinking was criticized for its perceived impropriety.
— Permanent collection label
Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories
Exhibition History
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Tenth Annual Exhibition, Nov. 2, 1905-Jan. 1, 1906.
New York, Macbeth Galleries, The Eight, Feb. 3-15, 1908.
Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago Paintings by Eight American Artists, Sept. 8-Oct. 8, 1908; traveled to Detroit Institute of Arts, Dec. 1908, John Herron Art Institute of Indianapolis, Jan. 6-29, 1909, Cincinnati Art Museum, Feb. 8-28, 1909, Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Mar. 5-31, 1909.
San Francisco, Panama Pacific Exhibition, 1915.
Paris, Chambre Syndicale des Beaux Arts, Exhibition of American Art, June 9-July 5, 1924.
Art Institute of Chicago, Thirty-Eighth Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture, Oct. 29-Dec. 13, 1925.
New York City, Museum of Modern Art, American Painting and Sculpture 1862-1932, Oct. 31, 1932-Jan. 31, 1933.
Art Institute of Chicago, Century of Progress Exposition, June 1-Nov. 1, 1933.
Art Institute of Chicago, Century of Progress Exposition, June 1-Nov. 1, 1934.
Toledo Museum of Art, "Twenty-Second Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by Contemporary American Artists," June 2-August 25, 1935, no. 21.
Hartford, Conn., Wadsworth Atheneum, American Painting and Sculpture of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Centuries, Jan. 29-Feb. 19, 1935.
Cleveland Museum of Art, American Painting from 1860 Until Today, 1937.
Baltimore Museum of Art, Two Hundred Years of American Painting, Jan. 15-Feb. 29, 1938.
New York City, Whitney Museum of American Art, William Glackens Memorial Exhibition, Dec. 14, 1938-Jan. 15, 1939.
Art Institute of Chicago, Half a Century of American Art, Nov. 16, 1939-Jan. 7, 1940.
Northampton, Mass., Smith College Museum of Art, Aspects of American Painting 1900-1940, June 12-22, 1940.
New York City, Whitney Museum of American Art, This is Our City, Mar. 11-Apr. 13, 1941.
Brooklyn Museum, The Eight, Nov. 24, 1943-Jan. 16, 1944.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Artists of the Philadelphia Press, Oct. 14-Nov. 18, 1945.
London, Tate Gallery, American Painting, June-July 1946.
New York City, Kraushaar Gallery, Paintings and Drawings by William Glackens, 1948-1949.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 75th Anniversary Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by 75 Artists Associated with the Art Students Leagure of New York, 1951, cat. 27, ill.
New York, Wildenstein and Company, Landmarks of American Art 1670-1950, Feb. 26-Mar. 28, 1953.
New York Century Club, Mar. 31-May 30, 1954.
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, One Hundred Fifieth Annual Exhibition, Jan. 15-Mar. 13, 1955.
Buffalo, Albright Art Gallery, Fifty Paintings: 1905-1913, May 14-June 12, 1955.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, American Painting, 1955.
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute Museum of Art, Retrospective of Carnegie International Exhibitions, 1959.
Minneapolis Museum of Art, Four Centuries of American Art, Nov. 27, 1963-Jan. 19, 1964.
City Art Museum of St. Louis, William Glackens in Retrospective, 1966-1967; traveled to Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institute, New York City, Whitney Museum of American Art.
Lakeview Center for the Arts and Sciences, The Eight, Sept. 12-Nov. 9, 1969.
New York City, National Academy of Design, Turn-of-the-Century America, June 30, 1977-May 28, 1978.
New York City, Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Painters of Modern Life: Impressionism and Realism, 1994-1995; traveled to Ft. Worth, Amon Carter Museum, Denver Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
New York City, Whitney Museum of American Art, The American Century: Art and Culture, 1999.
Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Life's Pleasures: the Ashcan Artist's' Brush with Leisure, 1895-1925, August 2-October 28, 2007; traveled to New York Historical Society, November 18, 2007-February 10, 2008; Detroit Institute of Arts, March 2-May 25, 2008, New York and Detroit only.
Publication History
A. E. Gallatin, “The Art of William Glackens,” International Studio, 40 (1910) p. LXVIII.
Art News 4 (Nov. 4, 1905), p. 5 (ill.).
American Art Annual 6 (1907), p. 60 (ill.).
Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago 19 (1925), p. 97 (ill.).
Masterpiece of the Month, Notes and References (Art Institute of Chicago, Jan. 1942-Dec. 1945), pp. 115-16.
The Arts 3 (1923), p. 249 (ill.).
Guy Pene du Bois, William J. Glackens (Whitney Museum of Art, 1931), pl. 52 (ill.)
Index of Twentieth Century Artists 2, 4 (Jan. 1935), p. 54.
Magazine of Art 30 (1937), p. 175 (ill.).
Ladies’ Home Journal (Jan. 1947) p. 26 (ill.).
Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), pp. 180, 377 (ill.).
D.F. Hoopes, The American Impressionists, (Watson-Guptill Publications, 1972), p. 128 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998).
Judith A. Barter et al, The Age of American Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2011), no. 86.
Ownership History
C.W. Kraushaar Gallery, New York, by 1925; sold to The Art Institute of Chicago, 1925.