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oil on canvas Painted circa 1911-12. William Glackens began his career as an illustrator for the Philadelphia Press. He was encouraged to study at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts by Robert Henri and, following a trip to Europe, settled in New York City in 1895. Glackens became a member of The Eight, the revolutionary group of realist artists led by Henri, and established a studio on Washington Square South, where he devoted himself to painting the parks and city squares of New York. Washington Square was one of the many place in the city which served as urban refuges from the daily chaos of the streets of New York. Despite the rapid expansion of the city, the parks provided a place for children and adults of all backgrounds to enjoy the outdoors. In the early 1900s, Washington Square was bordered on the North side by "The Row," a string of Greek revival townhouses built by the prominent families of New York society, and on the South by a growing European immigrant community. The urban environment around Washington Square provided the setting for many of his works during this period. Leslie Katz writes: "The focal point of William Glackens' New York is the world of Washington Square, at once genteel and open to all, where uptown meets downtown, where the tradition of old New York encounters and combines (as it does to this day) with the new, where Fifth Avenue terminates all its last-ditch elegance in a sward of miraculously green surprise, where wealth and poverty mingle in wondering contrast, at once possibly forgiving but not forgetting. In his work draftsmanship and composition and color celebrate the city from every vantage ?" (William Glackens in Retrospect, St. Louis, Missouri, City Art Museum of St. Louis, 1966, p. 20).