The Fire Boss 1925

George Luks captured this subject with oils on canvas. The painting has emerged through shifts of value—dark greens, browns, and blacks forming the shadowy ground of the painting—with lighter tones defining the figure’s clothing and flesh. I feel for Luks here, imagining him trying to find this guy in the darkness and then get him onto the canvas. His face is heavily modeled with a thick impasto, whereas the background and some of the miner’s clothing is loosely defined. The gestures in the face communicate so much: you can imagine that furrowed brow, the pipe clenched between his teeth—it all speaks to the hard work and stoicism that I associate with workers from that period. This work feels deeply connected to the Ashcan School of painting. Artists like Luks were dedicated to portraying everyday life, particularly focusing on the working class and urban scenes. Luks has captured something real, which is what painting is all about. We're always in conversation with each other, influencing and inspiring one another's work across time and space.