Cleveland Museum of Art

Holiday on the Hudson

George Luks

Date

c. 1912

Medium

oil on canvas

Culture

America

Department

American Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

A sun-dappled scene of middle-class leisure, Holiday on the Hudson is an atypical work by Luks, who more often turned to gritty tenement subjects for inspiration. Throughout his career, the painter fashioned himself as a brash, profane, and hard-drinking antagonist to New York’s genteel art-world establishment. The museum purchased this work just four months before the artist was beaten to death in the wake of a speakeasy argument. Luks often boasted about being an amateur boxing champion, but this was later revealed to be a tall tale.

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