Although he also painted imaginative landscapes and somewhat satirical scenes of the city and society, Gluckmann’s perennial subject was women, portrayed either singly or silently seated together, as though dreamily absorbed in their interior life. The Confidantes shows the artist’s feeling for the large design and opulent forms. Critics have always marveled at his technique and sensuous paint surfaces, which seem almost Venetian. However, Gluckmann’s mature images of women are modern in spirit. The confidantes are unmistakably workingclass women, as shown by their clothes and slick, red-polished fingernails and lipstick. Consequently, despite his old master painting style, Gluckmann, in subject matter, paralleled East Coast realist artists.
