Spanish Music Hall

A native of New Jersey, Everett Shinn took night classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts while employed as an artist-reporter at various Philadelphia newspapers. In 1897 he moved to New York to work for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. Among his Ashcan colleagues, Shinn was most partial to theatrical subjects, which he found on both the street and stage, treating the urban spectacle in pastel and oil. During a trip to Europe in 1900, Shinn discovered the influential work of Edgar Degas. Here, Shinn echoed the French master’s practice of placing the viewer of the painting among represented theater patrons, as a virtual member of the audience. The scene likely depicts a New York vaudeville house, where Spanish songs and dances were popular parts of the bill.