By the Sea, by the Sea, by the Beautiful Sea!
These scenes of sun and surf will soon close for the season on August 13, when Scenes of American Life: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum closes at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville. Glackens's lively and colorful views of resort towns on the south shore of Long Island, New York, depict the leisure activities of a growing middle class in America—tourists who had the means to escape the heat of the city during the summertime.
Beach (shown below) is one of twenty murals Gertrude Goodrich and her husband Jerome Snyder designed for the cafeteria of the Social Security building in Washington, D.C. It shows a typical day at the shore, with people sunbathing, swimming, flying kites, and relaxing.
Source: Virginia Mecklenburg. Scenes from American Life: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).
Pictured top: William Glackens, 1870–1938, Beach Umbrellas at Blue Point, about 1915, oil, 26 x 32 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ira Glackens.
Pictured bottom: Gertrude Goodrich, born 1914, Scenes of American Life (Beach), 1941–7, dry pigment in beeswax emulsion on canvas, 79 3/16 x 165 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from General Services Administration.
These scenes of sun and surf will soon close for the season on August 13, when Scenes of American Life: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum closes at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville. Glackens's lively and colorful views of resort towns on the south shore of Long Island, New York, depict the leisure activities of a growing middle class in America—tourists who had the means to escape the heat of the city during the summertime.