Revue
1908

By 1903, the theater and thriving vaudeville houses that drew crowds from every social class had become Everett Shinn’s primary subject. Typical of much of Shinn's work, Revue shows a fragmentary glimpse of the theater from which the whole scene can be imagined. Shinn uses broad, loose brushstrokes to reveal a dancer, her face warmly bathed by the footlights, exposing her ankle in mid-curtsy. His brushwork picks out the dainty ruffles and elaborate textures of the dancer’s dress, while at lower left the gently oblique point of view includes the orchestra leader. Revue was one of the paintings Shinn selected to represent his work in the landmark 1908 exhibition of urban realism organized by Robert Henri at the Macbeth Galleries in New York. The Eight, as the eight artists in the show were quickly dubbed, had individual styles, but all were rebelling against the rarefied and aristocratic themes long demanded by the academic establishment.