Style Imitating Art | “Allen Street” by George Luks

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

Marsha was trying to find an art movement that she was unfamiliar with when she came across the Ashcan School. Because many artistic movements seem to be rather high brow, Marsha loves the irony of the Ashcan name. We previously featured Ashcan artist, Robert Henri, back in 2021, so Marsha chose Allen Street by George Luks, an artist from the same movement and close friend of Henri’s. She liked the color palette and the Impressionist feel of the painting as it offers a variety of inspiration for our style challenge. 

The Artwork

Allen Street by George Luks

About the Artist: George Luks

George Benjamin Luks was born on August 13, 1867, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, to a Polish immigrant father who was a physician and apothecary. His mother, who was born in Bavaria, was an amateur painter and musician. His family eventually moved near the coal fields in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, where young George learned about poverty and compassion as his parents helped coal miners and their families.

In the 1880s, during his teenage years, George and his younger brother began their working life playing vaudeville shows in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. George eventually left performing to pursue a career as an artist. He knew from a very young age that he wanted to be an artist, studying briefly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He later attended several European art schools to study the Old Masters. He then moved in with a distant relative in Düsseldorf, Germany, and took classes at the Düsseldorf School of Art before heading to the more artistically stimulating environments of London and Paris.

In 1893, George returned to the Philadelphia area and began working as an illustrator for the Philadelphia Press. During his time as an illustrator, he acquired many lifelong friends who proved to be both inspirational and influential. In 1896, George moved to New York City to work as an artist for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World, where he took over illustrating the popular Hogan’s Alley comic strip. While in New York, George lived with William Glackens, who along with Everett Shinn and Robert Henri, encouraged him to focus more on his serious artwork. This support from his friends led to several productive years that resulted in some of Luks’s most prominent examples of what would soon be known as Ashcan art.

After having many of their paintings rejected by the conservative National Academy of Design, Robert Henri, George Luks, William Glackens, John Sloan, Everett Shinn, Arthur B. Davies, Ernest Lawson, and Maurice Prendergast formed their own artists’ group called “The Eight”, hosting their first collective exhibition in January 1908.

Working-class subjects and scenes of urban life, the hallmarks of the Ashcan realism movement, are exemplified by George Luks’s depictions of real life scenes. The Ashcan School successfully challenged the conservative beliefs of academic art institutions and contributed to broadening the scope of what America considered “suitable” artistic expression. Luks became well known for his accurate depictions of working life in early 20th century New York City neighborhoods and was also regarded as a master of strong color effects. His work was entered in the painting event at the 1932 Summer Olympics art competition.

Known as a rebel and one of the most distinctive personalities in American art, George Luks was married twice and had no children. In the early morning hours of October 29, 1933, 66-year-old Luks was found beaten to death in a New York City doorway, the result of an altercation at a nearby bar. He was buried in Fernwood Cemetery in Royersford, Pennsylvania, wearing one of his most valued possessions, an 18th-century embroidered waistcoat. His packed funeral was attended by family, friends, and former art students.

About the Art: “Allen Street”

“Allen Street” is a 1905 oil on canvas painted by George Luks in the Ashcan realism style. It measures 32 × 45 inches (81.3 × 114.3 cm) unframed with frame dimensions of 42 1/4 × 55 1/4 × 3 1/4 inches (107.3 × 140.3 × 8.3 cm). A gift of Miss Inez Hyder, the painting is currently on view in the permanent collection of the Hunter Museum of Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The painting depicts a market scene on Allen Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Allen Street has a rich history, first being named Chester Street prior to 1799. In May 1806, after the New York Orphan Asylum was built, the street was renamed Asylum Street. In 1833, it was quietly renamed Third Street and eventually Allen Street.

Allen Street experienced its heyday in the early part of the 20th century when it was heavily populated by Romania and Sephardic Jews from Turkey, Syria, Egypt, and Greece. Many of these immigrants worked in basement brass and copper fabrication shops and sold their wares in the street markets.

George Luks’s depiction of Allen Street in 1905 is just a few years after a gang gun battle erupted beneath the El tracks at Allen and Rivington Streets in September 1903. In March 1905, 105 Allen Street, a five story, overcrowded tenement building housing 200 people, experienced a fire that claimed 20 lives. I am not certain if Luks painted “Allen Street” before or after the March 1905 fire.

Helpful Links:

• The Ashcan School, an introduction
• George Benjamin Luks, Street Scene (Hester Street)
• Artera: Allen Street 1905
• Wikipedia: George Luks
• Hunter Museum of American Art: Allen Street

About My Outfit

I was rightfully and thoroughly stumped by this painting but my closet magic came to the rescue once again. As I approached my closet room to begin planning an outfit for this style challenge, I was immediately greeted by my reliable multi patterned Kantha Bae robe that was hanging on the outside of the door. It immediately spoke to me and said, “Hey girl, you don’t even have to try for this one. Just wear me.” I wore this same robe for two previous SIA challenges (here and here), but it worked again for this one so who am I to argue with the clothes?

I built the rest of my outfit around my robe with a focus on some of the colors in the painting that stood out to me most, specifically the yellows and oranges of the tapestries hanging in the market scene and the somber background hues of dark brown, black, and gray. I started with a thrifted yellow tunic over rust colored leggings and added a black tee shirt weight cardigan under my robe, topped with a very old black and tan pashmina scarf. I bookended my outfit with my old black cowgirl boots and my new black cowgirl hat and added gold and black tassel earrings, a gold and black tassel necklace, a thrifted black and gold beaded necklace, and a black and gold wire wrapped cameo cowboy skull made by my friend Michelle.

I was happy enough with this outfit for successfully fulfilling this style challenge. I think the colors, patterns, and layers really captured all the texture and depth of the painting. I am displeased, however, with this yellow tunic. I was really excited when I found it in the thrift store because it is my favorite style of tee shirt from my favorite retail brand and it was a color I did not have. But it seems to be much clingier than all the other tunics I have, sticking to my body in all the wrong places. Maybe that’s why it was in the thrift store!

I hope you all enjoyed this round of Style Imitating Art. Be sure to check out how Marsha and Salazar have styled their outfits inspired by this painting of Allen Street in 1905. If you want to play along and create your own art inspired outfit, please submit your photos to Marsha (mlrbanks57@gmail.com) by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, and she will feature your outfit in her style gallery on Wednesday, April 8, 2026.

Until then, happy styling! 

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee