Focus on this artwork and explain the Reception.
Critic Charles Henry Meltzer, reviewing after the National Academy exhibition, described Men of the Docks as "irritating ... yet full of talent" owing to its "deliberate carelessness" in the drawing of the crowd, which he found to have character. The writer for The Craftsman found the painting to be "an important painting of the year", "a freshly painted canvas ... presented with the thrill and wonder inherent in the edges of great seaport towns".Marc Porter of Christie's described Men of the Docks as "the definitive essay on the U.S. in the first half of the 20th century. It’s big, brawny, tough." Alan Franham of Forbes called it "a class by itself", noting that, as opposed to the work's value of millions of dollars, prints by the artist could be bought for $50,000. The curator Christopher Riopelle considers the painting to "evoke something of the raw and unbeautiful energy of the urban experience in what was at the time one of the world's fastest-growing cities" through its "wilful awkwardness and brutality".
The Craftsman Forbes Christie's