William James Glackens

Montmartre, located in the northern part of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, is the highest point in the city. Its most famous landmark is the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Coeur that was built on its summit from 1876 to 1912. When Glackens visited Montmartre, it was a working-class neighborhood that had also long been a center of artistic and bohemian life in Paris, attractive to painters because of its cheap rents and the quality of its hilltop air and light. The area was breezy, as attested by the presence of windmills such as the famous Moulin de la Galette, and thus it made an ideal place for kite flying. Glackens's background as a much-admired illustrator is especially noticeable in the vivid action of the figures that inhabit Flying Kites, Montmartre. The two figures chatting by the lamp post are skillfully posed, and the activity of the kite-flyers adds vigor to the scene. Characterizations such as these earned Glackens much praise from his contemporaries, and he was particularly admired for his crowd scenes and his facility with anatomy and gesture.