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Home > Artists > Louis Glackens

Louis Glackens

Born: 1866 | Died: 1933

Louis Glackens

Biography

Louis Glackens was the older brother of American painter William Glackens. As students at Philadelphia’s Central High School, Lou and William entertained students and teachers by making on-the-spot drawings of school events and personalities during assemblies. With his flair for comic delineation, Lou quickly found work as a commercial illustrator after graduation. His drawings for The Last Tenet Imposed upon the Khan of Tomathoz from 1892 show a confident draughtsman adept at exploiting delicate lines and blank space to create dynamic illustrations. The book also demonstrates Glackens’s skill at the kind of racial and ethnic caricature that was common in the American comic press in the late 19th century, and in the 1890s he began working regularly for Puck, one of the leading humor magazines in the United States.

During his over-20-year career at Puck, Glackens created dozens of covers and hundreds of comic drawings poking fun at a wide range of subjects, including politics, fashion, and shifting cultural values. He worked in a variety of formats and styles. His full-page color covers use fluid lines, bold colors, and open space for dramatic impact, while his multi-panel cartoons revel in myriad details. Historical subjects seem to have been a specialty; from 1900 through 1903, during the height of the Colonial Revival, Glackens published a series called “In Colonial Days” that took a light-hearted look at Puritans and America's Founding Fathers. Glackens also illustrated for general interest magazines, newspapers, book publishers, and producers of novelties. Beginning in 1915, around the time when Puck changed ownership and began its decline, Glackens put his lively lines to work for animation studios, producing more than 20 films for Bray Studios, a pioneer in animated filmmaking.

 

Heather Campbell Coyle, Curator of American Art, Delaware Art Museum

Illustrations by Louis Glackens

Cover art for “Puck’s Library” #151Public Domainhttps://www.illustrationhistory.org/illustrations/cover-art-for-pucks-library-151
“Puck” cartoonPublic Domainhttps://www.illustrationhistory.org/illustrations/puck-cartoon
He Had a HunchPublic Domainhttps://www.illustrationhistory.org/illustrations/he-had-a-hunch
Three Identical Men in Top Hats with MonoclesPublic Domainhttps://www.illustrationhistory.org/illustrations/three-identical-men-in-top-hats-with-monocles

Additional Resources

  • Yesterday’s Papers
  • “The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000,” by Walt Reed
  • Delaware Art Museum

Bibliography

Glackens, Ira. William Glackens and the Ashcan Group: The Emergence of Realism in American Art. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1957.

Newgarden, Mark. “L.M. Glackens Cartoons (1915–1920).” The Bray Animation Project. 2016. http://brayanimation.weebly.com/l-m-glackens.html

Sloan, Helen Farr. City Life Illustrated: 1890–1940; Sloan, Glackens, Luks, Shinn, their friends and followers. Wilmington, DE: Delaware Art Museum, 1980.

Genres
  • Advertising
    • Corporate
    • Political and Public Service
    • Product
    • Self-Promotion
  • Books
    • Children’s Books
    • Cover Art
    • Interior Illustration
  • Cartooning
    • Advertising
    • Caricature
    • Political and Editorial
    • Sports
    • Spot
  • Comics
    • Comic Books
      • Manga
    • Comic Strips
  • Decorative & Applied Illustration
    • Info Graphics
    • Murals
    • Portraiture
  • Fantasy
    • Adventure
    • Fairy Tales and Fables
    • Mythology
  • Fashion
    • Advertising
    • Design
  • Graphic Novels
    • Fiction
    • Non-Fiction
    • Visual Memoir and Autobiography
  • Internet Illustration
    • Web Comics
    • Website Illustration
  • Magazine
    • Cover Art
    • Story Illustration
  • Moving Image
    • Animation
    • Concept Art
    • Storyboard
    • Video Game Design
  • Newspaper
  • Non-Commissioned Work
  • Poster
    • Event (Promotional)
    • Film
    • Political
    • Propaganda
    • Travel
  • Product Illustration
    • Album/CD
    • Calendars
    • DVD/VHS/Videogame
    • Greeting Cards
    • Packaging
    • Paper Dolls
    • Postage Stamps
  • Pulp Illustration
    • Pinup Art
    • Pulp Magazines
  • Science Fiction
    • Creatures
    • Outer Space
    • Technology
  • Technical
    • Anatomy
    • Archaeological
    • Architecture
    • Courtroom Drawings
    • Horticulture
    • Mechanical
    • Natural History
Global Perspectives
  • North America
  • Europe
  • Asia
RELATED ARTISTS
  • Felix Octavius Carr Darley Felix Octavius Carr Darley
  • William Glackens William Glackens
  • George Luks George Luks
  • Everett Shinn Everett Shinn
  • Dan Smith Dan Smith
Related Time Periods
  • Late 19th Century Late 19th Century
  • The Decade 1900-1910 The Decade 1900-1910
  • The Decade 1910-1920 The Decade 1910-1920
  • The Decade 1920-1930 The Decade 1920-1930

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