Everett Shinn was a member of the Ashcan Art School and the Westport, Connecticut art colony. Most often his artistic themes dealt with the theater in New York, London and Paris. In 1928 his painting, "The Sexless Nude", was one of many works by various artists featured at an exhibit given by the Bedford, CT YMCA. A complaint by a janitress led to a meeting of boards of governors who decided to remove Shinn's painting from the exhibit.