Also poorly served by the fact that his career precisely paralleled the importation of the Modernist avant-garde from Europe. His aspirational middle-class content was very Modern, and also was the perfect example of what Modernist art was supposed to scorn. He didn't get any real critical attention beyond knee-jerk dismissal until well after he was dead.

There was a pretty good cover article about him in the Smithsonian, a couple of months ago.