Who was the enigmatic "Miss Olga D"? This dark-clothed woman sitting on a serpentine-back sofa, motionless and emotionless, near yet distant, with wistful countenance, wide-set eyes gazing blankly, lost in thought. Is the expression one of mystique, or merely boredom? More likely the latter, for the young lady in William Glackens' painting from 1910 was probably no more to the artist than a suitable model, retained solely for the pose. Glackens kept a small notebook with the names, addresses, and brief comments about numerous available models ("Miss Mignon Fyella, 593 West 145th St. Has yellow dress"). While no reference to an Olga appears in the book, Ira Glackens, son of the artist and his chief biographer, still feels that she may be hidden on its pages. Responding to an inquiry from the museum on the subject's possible identity, he relates in a letter on November 27, 1975:

I do not know who the lady was, and the name might not even have been hers. Father was always prone to hire models who needed a job, and that is why so many of his canvases were of exceedingly plain females, though paintable.

Although the subject apparently is not some secret femme fatale, the painting is no less noteworthy in that it is one of the first products of a rather abrupt, and perhaps overdue stylistic change. For the decade and a half preceding it, Glackens painted in an earthy, realist manner, suggestive of his close friend and mentor, Robert Henri. But about 1910 he began to respond to influences he had seen four years earlier on a trip to Spain and France.

He met the great impressionist, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and the fauve master, Henri Matisse. One sees elements of both Renoir and Matisse in Miss Olga D. Renoir is the feathery brushstroke, fluid edges, and warm, rosy palette with colored shadows (especially the greenish flesh tones). One senses Matisse in the bold contrast of decorative patterns (the wallpaper print against the plumed hat), in the voluptuous, undulating contours, and graceful negative shapes. The same swelling curves of the sofa, same warm color scheme, comparable negative shapes, a similar pensive facial expression by the model (though the model is not Olga) -- all may be seen in another significant Glackens painting of the same year, Nude with Apple (Brooklyn Museum).

The Horse Chestnut Tree, Washinton Square pictures a spacious uncrowded park where people can liesurely take outings. The high vantage point provides a sweeping view of the square spotlighting one of its primary "characters," the blooming horse chestnut tree. With the exception of a man in his straw hat, the scene predominantly focusses on women and children.

This seems to be a middle class scene for the dress of those pictured indicates neither ethnic origin nor the formality or fashion of the upper class. Washington Square straddles several communities in the city. Greenwich Village to the south was considered a bohemian enclave which attracted many artists and authors, including many members of the Ashcan School. To the north was a posher, more affluent neighborhood. So, like many parks and squares in New York, Washington Square could have been a meeting place for a cross section of the New York populace. While some paintings of parks by Glackens and other Ashcan School artists emphasize the mix of classes and nationalities in a park, The Horse Chestnut Tree focusses on the relaxing elements of this urban space where children can joyfully frolic and adults idly stroll.

Parks were a concern of city planners in the early years of this century in New York. As noted in the Metropolitan Lives catalogue, ". . . participants in the City Beautiful Movement and other urban reformers . . . sought to analyze and improve urban life through the designs of public spaces. This thinking originated in the mid-nineteenth century with the creation of Central Park, a massive municipal undertaking that was justified not simply as an amenity for local residents but one that might improve people by putting them in contact with nature." (Washington Square was opened in 1827, even earlier than Central Park.) In this Glackens painting, the soothing quality of an open, green space amidst the bustle of a city is emphasized.

Guy Pene du bois called Glackens "a portrayer of . . . the picnic spirit." Certainly, the pastel color and lighthearted air of The Horse Chestnut Tree, Washington Square conveys this mood.

Glackens was born in Philadelphia in 1870. He attended Central High School, where John Sloan was a classmate. With a keen eye and a natural gift for drawing, he landed a position as staff illustrator for the Philadelphia Record in 1891. The next year he moved to the rival Press, where Sloan was in the art department along with Everett Shinn, and, after 1893, George Luks. At the same time, he took night classes under Thomas Anshutz at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. About 1894 Glackens met the magnetic Henri, who was then teaching at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. The two men shared a studio later the same year. Then in the spring of 1895, Glackens, Henri, and another Philadelphia artist-friend, Elmer Schofield, traveled eighteen months through France, Holland, and Belgium. Henri was particularly impressed upon seeing the work of Franz Hals, Rembrandt, Diego Velasquez, Francisco Goya, and Edouard Manet, and he led in adapting for his own expressive ends the dark-toned, freely brushed method of those earlier Europeans. By the time the party returned to America in late 1896, Glackens was confirmed to the Henri approach.

Resettled in New York City, Glackens found that Shinn and Luks had transferred from Philadelphia. Luks, then with the New York World, gave him a job to create comic drawings for the paper's Sunday supplement. Shortly, Glackens also began illustrating for the Herald. Glackens and Luks shared a room and studio for several months, during which time Glackens is acknowledged for having provided Luks crucial encouragement to pursue painting seriously. In 1898 the national illustrated magazine, McClure's, sent Glackens to Cuba to cover events of the Spanish-American War. After the important 1906 European trip, and after having been elected an associate member of the National Academy of Design the same year (he was not raised to full membership until 1933), he concentrated more and more on painting. He gave up illustration altogether in 1914.

As one of the Henri circle, Glackens had six pictures in the showing by The Eight at New York's Macbeth Gallery in 1908. In 1910 he helped organize and participated in the first large no-prerequisite (only a modest entry fee), no-jury, no-prize show in the United States, the controversial Exhibition of Independent Artists. It was also in 1910 that Glackens was re-acquainted with an old high school friend, Dr. Albert C. Barnes, a wealthy manufacturer and the inventor of the antiseptic compound, Argyrol. Barnes heretofore had been a dilettante art collector, acquiring little of note or value. But he wanted to improve his holdings significantly, and to that end sought Glackens' help. In February 1912, Barnes sent Glackens to Paris with a sizeable amount of money to buy for him whatever paintings he thought worthwhile. Glackens purchased twenty French modern works, including pieces by Cézanne and Renoir. Later Glackens counseled Barnes in buying paintings by each of The Eight. These two ventures established the nucleus of what would eventually become the esteemed Barnes Foundation Collection in Merion, Pennsylvania. Later in 1912 Glackens joined the planning group for the prodigious Armory Show, held in New York the following year. He served as chairman for the selection of American art, and, somewhat modestly, included only three of his own works in the exhibit.

In 1916 Glackens was a founding member and the first president of the Society of Independent Artists. Throughout his New York years, he taught periodically at the Art Students League. After 1925 the artist and his wife divided their time between America and Europe. Abroad, he resided mainly in France, a country he very much loved. In the mid 1930s, his health gradually deteriorated. While visiting in the Westport, Connecticut, home of long-time friends, artist Charles Prendergast (brother of Maurice) and his wife, in May 1938, Glackens died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was sixty-eight.