A Headache in Every Glass

In William Glackens's A Headache in Every Glass, drinkers cluster around small tables set up on the bare floor of a concert saloon, one of many such establishments in early twentieth-century American cities where patrons could imbibe spirits—source of the headache of the drawing's title—while taking in cheap entertainment. In the background, the stage is harshly lit by footlights, but the entertainers, identically costumed dancers and a man whose dress and mutton-chop whiskers mark him as Irish, are sketchy figures compared with the spectators. A family—bowler-hatted man, matronly woman, and children whose faces are hidden by hats—are gathered behind the piano player, apparently intent on the on-stage spectacle. But Glackens draws greater attention to two couples and a lone woman seated furthest from the stage, posed in attitudes of indifference that suggest their intoxication. The familiar gestures of the two women seated with male companions at far left and at center and the solitary status of the fashionably dressed woman on the right hint that they are prostitutes angling for clients in the permissive atmosphere of the saloon.

Glackens began his career as an artist-reporter and magazine illustrator in Philadelphia and New York City during the so-called "golden age" of American illustration. He drew A Headache in Every Glass as one of seven illustrations for "Our Melancholy Pastimes," an article by James L. Ford published in the magazine Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly in 1904. By that date, working in New York, he was a successful and well-established illustrator; indeed, four years earlier Glackens was among a small number of artists hailed as America's "new leaders" in the field. As this drawing demonstrates, Glackens was adept at capturing the nuances of social types and situations. Even independent of its scathing title (a quote from Ford's article), A Headache in Every Glass succinctly captures the mingled pathos and humor of this commonplace scene of life on New York's social margin. Glackens's interest in embracing both high and low life in the modern American city earned him a place among the so-called Ashcan school artists, who in the first decade of the twentieth century shocked the American public with their realist paintings of the urban social scene.

Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920 (The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 15, 1999; Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, December 10, 1999–May 7, 2000 (in modified form). [exh. cat.]

Héroïque et le quotidien: les artistes américains, 1820–1920 (The Extraordinary and the Everyday: American Perspectives, 1820–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 30, 2001. [exh. cat.]

Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930 (Passing through Paris: American Artists in France, 1860–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, April 1–October 31, 2005. [exh. brochure]

Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930 (Passing through Paris: American Artists in France, 1860–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, April 1–October 29, 2006. [exh. brochure]

The Eight and American Modernisms, Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut, and Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (organizers). Venues: New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut, March 6–May 24, 2009; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 6–August 23, 2009. [exh. cat.]

Allyn, Nancy E. and Elizabeth H. Hawkes. William Glackens: A Catalogue of His Book and Magazine Illustrations. Wilmington, Delaware: Delaware Art Museum, 1987. No. 252, p. 18 (citing this work in: Ford, James L. "Our Melancholy Pastimes." Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly 57:6 [April 1904]: 608).

Cartwright, Derrick R. The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1999. Text pp. 16, 24 (checklist); fig. 12, p. 16.

Cartwright, Derrick R. Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1999. Text pp. 16, 24 (checklist); fig. 12, p. 16.

Cartwright, Derrick R. and Paul J. Karlstrom. American Moderns, 1900–1950. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2000. Ill. no. 2, p. 63 (black & white).

Cartwright, Derrick R. and Paul J. Karlstrom. L'Amérique et les modernes, 1900–1950. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2000. Ill. no. 2, p. 63 (black & white).

Kennedy, Elizabeth et al. The Eight and American Modernisms. (exh. cat., New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut and Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2009. Text pp. 44, 175 (checklist); Ill. p. 44 (color).