Ashcan Painting of Young Man in Plain Clothes | Social Realism

Here we have a stunning Ashcan oil painting of a young man posing, surrounded by darkness. The dichotomy of the ghostly lad amidst the dark atmosphere. The social realism is oozing out of this statement piece. And that's why it's in my possession. The hand of this artist is killer because the tones explode, haunting you love after to turn away. But you won't be able to stay way for long. A powerhouse of a portrait, coming out of the shadows.

The Ashcan oil on board is signed Nisha(?) on the left slide. The artist is still a mystery to me, which blows my mind given the quality. The painting comes out of a high end collector's estate in Chicago. I was told the painting has to be from the early 1900s. My guess is the 1920s.

Here's some more information about the Ashcan School, courtesy of Wikipedia:

The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, was an artistic movement in the United States during the late 19th-early 20th century that is best known for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York, often in the city's poorer neighborhoods.

The Ashcan School was not an organized movement. The artists who worked in this style did not issue manifestos or even see themselves as a unified group with identical intentions or career goals. Some were politically minded, and others were apolitical. Their unity consisted of a desire to tell certain truths about the city and modern life they felt had been ignored by the suffocating influence of the Genteel Tradition in the visual arts. Robert Henri, in some ways the spiritual father of this school, "wanted art to be akin to journalism... he wanted paint to be as real as mud, as the clods of horse-shit and snow, that froze on Broadway in the winter." He urged his younger friends and students to paint in the robust, unfettered, ungenteel spirit of his favorite poet, Walt Whitman, and to be unafraid of offending contemporary taste. He believed that working-class and middle-class urban settings would provide better material for modern painters than drawing rooms and salons. Having been to Paris and admired the works of Edouard Manet, Henri also urged his students to ‘’paint the everyday world in America just as it had been done in France."

The unframed 1920s painting measures 20" tall by 16" wide. There is some wear along the edges of the canvas and some general wear. The painting is also experiencing craquelure throughout. It's all part of the look. There are numerous old nails hammering the canvas to the old frame. A stunning piece all the way around. Please see all pics as they are part of the description.

I ship FedEx to street addresses in the continental USA only (no PO boxes). Free shipping on the Ashcan portrait painting.

One of the most haunting paintings I've ever owned. Pictures do not do it justice.