WILLIAM GLACKENS
Born Philadelphia 1870 / Died Westport 1938

The Spectacle of Life: The Art of William Glackens

When Ira Glackens, son of American impressionist William Glackens, died in 1991, he left his substantial collection of works by his father to the Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale.

The original donation included more than two hundred works in a variety of media, later supplemented by another 300 works given by the Sansom Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by Ira and Nancy Glackens in the 1950s to oversee their art interests.

The Glackens Collection ranges from the artist’s earliest known painting (Philadelphia Landscape, from 1893) to his last completed canvas (White Rose and Other Flowers, from 1937). The collection also includes works by such contemporaries of William Glackens as Maurice Prendergast, Ernest Lawson, and John Sloan.

In 2001, the Museum opened a 10,000-square-foot wing that is home to the collection, made possible by the Sansom Foundation, and the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, Florida Arts Council.

This new installation for our revamped galleries showcases some of the best-known as well as most popular canvases and graphics from Glackens’s oeuvre, along with three loans from the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and one from Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art. The exhibition is curated by Jorge H. Santis, the Museum’s curator and head of collection research.

The Glackens Collection

In the fall of 1991 Ira Glackens, the son of William and Edith Glackens, died. Since he passed away without any heirs, he bequeathed his extensive personal collection of art by his father to the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale. Our institution became the beneficiary of this priceless gift through the tireless lobbying of the late C. Richard Hilker, a museum trustee and a close friend of Ira's.

The original donation consisted of over two hundred multimedia works of art, valued approximately at fifty million dollars. Among the canvases given were such well known masterpieces as Sledding, Central Park, 1912; Cape Cod Pier, 1908; and The Artist's Daughter in a Chinese Costume, 1916. Also part of the bequest were works by Maurice Prendergast, Ernest Lawson, John Sloan and other members of William's coterie.

Following Ira's death, Mr. Hilker became the President and CEO of the Sansom Foundation, a non-profit entity, created by Ira and his wife, Nancy, in 1950. Under its new leadership, the foundation's involvement with the Museum of Art grew, culminating with in the amazing donation of three hundred more works by William Glackens. The paintings and graphics, part of the Sansom's extensive art inventory, filled beautifully whatever gaps there were in Ira's original gift.

Consequently, the Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale boasts a comprehensive and extensive repository of works by the artist, spanning from his earliest known painting (Philadelphia Landscape, 1893) to his last completed canvas (White Rose and Other Flowers, 1937).

The Glackens Wing

In 1938, following William J. Glackens' death, his wife Edith Dimock Glackens decided to discontinue the sale of paintings and graphic works by the artist that were left in his estate. The reasoning behind her odd decision was her desire to make the works available to a future museum exclusively dedicated to his body of work. Regretfully, Mrs. Glackens passed away in 1955, without achieving her goal.

In February 2001 the Museum of Art, thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Sansom Foundation, created the Glackens Wing, finally fulfilling Edith's dream. Architect Oscar Vagi and his associates designed the ten thousand square foot addition. The structure not only houses several galleries and a period room but also provides offices and storage areas. The foundation's gift was supplemented by a grant from the State of Florida Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council.

The Ira Glackens art bequest and the construction of the Glackens Wing to house it, has made the Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale an important center for the study and display of early twentieth century American art. Our institution's goal is to provide museum-goers with a glimpse of a bygone, gentler era, through the display of one of its most gifted painters, William J. Glackens.