Lot Essay
Ernest Lawson was attracted to modern, urban scenes that reflected the dynamism of early twentieth-century America. Lawson found such appealing subject matter in and around Manhattan, where the city's bustling commercial and residential activity provided unlimited opportunities for painting.
Lawson was interested in the modern city and how its various elements, such as bridges, rivers, and modes of transportation, could be used to represent an aspect or vignette of life in the modern world. The Excursion Boat most likely depicts one of the many excursion steamers that plied the waters around New York City. Many such steamers took passengers on day trips to popular destinations such as Coney Island, the Rockaways, Manhattan Beach, or the New Jersey shore. Such resorts were not genteel summer communities but instead catered to the expanding urban middle class.
The Excursion Boat reflects Lawson's interest in the city dweller who sought recreation and leisure outside of the urban setting. H.B. Weinberg, D. Bolger, and D.P. Curry have written, "The new country retreats and suburban resorts were made accessible by developments in modern life -- improved and expanded railroads and steamships, increased service on rural trolley lines, roads that accomodated bicycles and, ultimately, the availability of the automobile itself. The modern life that made these refuges possible to reach also made them necessary . . . [It] was usually escape from the pressures of the new urban existence that the thousands of turn-of-the-century vacationers and the artists who joined them sought." (American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994, p. 94)
Although Lawson became acquainted with the artists of The Eight through his friendship with William Glackens and exhibited with the group, he also maintained ties with the more conservative National Academy of Design. In his works such as The Excursion Boat, Lawson fused both progressive and traditional approaches to painting. H.B. Weinberg, D. Bolger, and D.P. Curry have described Lawson's alignment with both the American Impressionists and Realists, "Although Lawson exhibited his paintings with the rebellious Eight, his style and his treatment of landscape subjects . . . ally him closely to the older American Impressionists, particularly his teachers Weir and John H. Twachtman. Like them, he idealized aspects of modern industry and transportation, showing bridges and rail lines that coexist harmoniously with the surrounding landscape."(American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915, p. 165)
Lawson was interested in the modern city and how its various elements, such as bridges, rivers, and modes of transportation, could be used to represent an aspect or vignette of life in the modern world. The Excursion Boat most likely depicts one of the many excursion steamers that plied the waters around New York City. Many such steamers took passengers on day trips to popular destinations such as Coney Island, the Rockaways, Manhattan Beach, or the New Jersey shore. Such resorts were not genteel summer communities but instead catered to the expanding urban middle class.
The Excursion Boat reflects Lawson's interest in the city dweller who sought recreation and leisure outside of the urban setting. H.B. Weinberg, D. Bolger, and D.P. Curry have written, "The new country retreats and suburban resorts were made accessible by developments in modern life -- improved and expanded railroads and steamships, increased service on rural trolley lines, roads that accomodated bicycles and, ultimately, the availability of the automobile itself. The modern life that made these refuges possible to reach also made them necessary . . . [It] was usually escape from the pressures of the new urban existence that the thousands of turn-of-the-century vacationers and the artists who joined them sought." (American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994, p. 94)
Although Lawson became acquainted with the artists of The Eight through his friendship with William Glackens and exhibited with the group, he also maintained ties with the more conservative National Academy of Design. In his works such as The Excursion Boat, Lawson fused both progressive and traditional approaches to painting. H.B. Weinberg, D. Bolger, and D.P. Curry have described Lawson's alignment with both the American Impressionists and Realists, "Although Lawson exhibited his paintings with the rebellious Eight, his style and his treatment of landscape subjects . . . ally him closely to the older American Impressionists, particularly his teachers Weir and John H. Twachtman. Like them, he idealized aspects of modern industry and transportation, showing bridges and rail lines that coexist harmoniously with the surrounding landscape."(American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915, p. 165)