Sloan, John 1871-1951

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SLOAN, John 1871-1951

PERSONAL: Born August 2, 1871, in Lock Haven, PA; died from complications following surgery, September 7, 1951, in Hanover, NH; son of John Dixon (a cabinetmaker and business owner) and Henrietta (a teacher; maiden name, Ireland) Sloan; married Anna M. "Dolly" Wall, 1901 (died, 1943); married Helen Farr, February 5, 1944. Education: Studied at the Spring Garden Institute and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

CAREER: Painter, illustrator, and educator. Porter and Coates, Philadelphia, PA, cashier, 1886; A. Edward Newton Co., Philadelphia, employee, 1889; Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, illustrator, 1892-95; Philadelphia Press, Philadelphia, illustrator, 1895-1904; Masses, art director, 1912-14; Art Students League of New York, teacher, 1930s. Organizer of Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts, 1931. Exhibitions: Work exhibited by National Academy of Design, Pennsylvania Academy of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, National Arts Club, Studio Club, Macbeth Gallery, Museum of Modern Art, Addison Gallery of American Art, Dartmouth College, Kraushaar Galleries, and National Museum of American Art. Work represented in permanent collections in various galleries, including Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT; and Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

MEMBER: Society of Independent Artists (cofounder and president, 1918-43).

AWARDS, HONORS: Elected to National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1929; elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1950; gold medal, National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1950.

WRITINGS:

collected art and exhibition catalogs

A. E. Gallatin, editor, John Sloan, Dutton (New York, NY), 1925.

American Art Nouveau, Hammermill Paper Company (Lock Haven, PA), 1967.

A Selection of Etchings by John Sloan, introductory essay by Peter Morse, University of Missouri Press (Columbia, MO), 1967.

Peter Morse, John Sloan's Prints: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Etchings, Lithographs, and Posters, foreword by Jacob Kainen, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1969.

The Sloan Exhibit, a Double Centennial, Lock Haven State College (Lock Haven, PA), 1970.

David W. Scott and E. John Bullard, John Sloan, 1871-1951: His Life and Paintings [by] David W. Scott; His Graphics [by] E. John Bullard, National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), 1971.

John Sloan Etchings: Exhibition, December 8th, 1974-January 11th, 1975, Harbor Gallery (Cold Spring Harbor, NY), 1974.

John Sloan/Robert Henri, Their Philadelphia Years, 1886-1904, October 1 to November 12, 1976, Moore College of Art Gallery, Moore College of Art Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), 1976.

Helen Farr Sloan, editor, New York Etchings (1905-1949), Dover Publications (New York, NY), 1978.

John Sloan: The Gloucester Years, Springfield Library and Museums Association for the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts (Springfield, MA), 1980.

Patterson Sims, John Sloan, A Concentration of Works from the Permanent Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art: A Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition, April 30-June 22, 1980, Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY), 1980.

John Sloan: Paintings, Prints, and Drawings, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH), 1981.

New York through the Eyes of John Sloan and John Marin: October 30-November 24, 1984, Kennedy Galleries (New York, NY), 1984.

James Kraft, John Sloan, A Printmaker, International Exhibitions Foundation (Washington, DC), 1984.

The Etchings of John Sloan: March 15-April 14, 1984, Kennedy Galleries (New York, NY), 1984.

Rowland Elzea and Elizabeth Hawkes, John Sloan: Spectator of Life, Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington, DE), 1988.

John Sloan: Exhibition, October 24th-November 30th, 1989, Harbor Gallery (New York, NY), 1989.

Rowland Elzea, John Sloan's Oil Paintings: A Catalogue Raisonne, (two volumes; "American Arts" series), University of Delaware Press (Newark, DE), 1991.

illustrator; selected works

Robert N. Keely, Jr., and Gwilym George Davis, In Arctic Seas: The Voyage of the Kite with the Peary Expedition, Hartranft (Philadelphia, PA), 1893.

Percival Pollard, Cape of Storms, Echo (Chicago, IL), 1895.

Charles Stokes Wayne, The Lady and Her Tree: A Story of Society, Vortex (Philadelphia, PA), 1895.

William Lindsey, Cinder-Path Tales, Copeland & Day (Boston, MA), 1896.

Charles M. Snyder, Comic History of Greece: From the Earliest Times to the Death of Alexander the Great, Lippincott (Philadelphia, PA), 1898.

Marie Corelli, Boy: A Sketch, Lippincott (Philadelphia, PA), 1900.

Stephen Crane, Great Battles of the World, Lippincott (Philadelphia, PA), 1901.

Charles Paul de Kock, Monsieur Dupont (two volumes), St. Gervais Edition (Boston, MA), 1902.

Louise Betts Edwards, The Tu-Tzes Tower, Coates (Philadelphia, PA), 1903.

Charles Paul de Kock, The Barber of Paris (two volumes), St. Gervais Edition (Boston, MA), 1903.

Charles Paul de Kock, Frere Jacques (two volumes), St. Gervais Edition (Boston, MA), 1903.

Charles Paul de Kock, The Gogo Family (two volumes), St. Gervais Edition (Boston, MA), 1903.

Charles Paul de Kock, The Memoirs of Charles Paul de Kock, St. Gervais Edition (Boston, MA), 1903.

Charles Paul de Kock, Adhmar, St. Gervais Edition (Boston, MA), 1904.

Charles Paul de Kock, Andr the Savoyard (two volumes), St. Gervais Edition (Boston, MA), 1904.

Charles Paul de Kock, Jean, Volume 2, St. Gervais Edition (Boston, MA), 1904.

Charles Paul de Kock, Madame Pantalon, St. Gervais Edition (Boston, MA), 1904.

Charles Paul de Kock, Cherami (two volumes), St. Gervais Edition (Boston, MA), 1905.

Charles Paul de Kock, The Flower Girl (two volumes), St. Gervais Edition (Boston, MA), 1905.

Thomas A. Daly, Canzoni, Catholic Standard and Times Publishing (Philadelphia, PA), 1906.

Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone, Scribner (New York, NY), 1908.

Wilkie Collins, The New Magdalen, Scribner (New York, NY), 1908.

George R. Kirkpatrick, War: What For?, self-published, 1910.

Thomas A. Daly, Madrigali, McKay (Philadelphia, PA), 1912.

Emile Gaboriau, The Count's Millions, Scribner (New York, NY), 1913.

Emile Gaboriau, Baron Trigault's Vengeance: A Sequel to The Count's Millions, Scribner (New York, NY), 1913.

Emile Gaboriau, Caught in the Net, Scribner (New York, NY), 1913.

Emile Gaboriau, The Champdoce Mystery: A Sequel to Caught in the Net, Scribner (New York, NY), 1913.

Emile Gaboriau, The Clique of Gold, Scribner (New York, NY), 1913.

Emile Gaboriau, Within an Inch of His Life, Scribner (New York, NY), 1913.

George Allen England, The Air Trust, Phil Wagner (St. Louis, MO), 1915.

George Allen England, The Golden Blight, H. K. Fly Co. (New York, NY), 1916.

Edgar Lee Masters, Mitch Miller, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1920.

Ralph Bergengren, Gentlemen All and Merry Companions, B. J. Brimmer Company (Boston, MA), 1922.

Milton Raison, Spindrift, Doran (New York, NY), 1922.

Max Miller, The Beginning of a Mortal, Dutton (New York, NY), 1933.

William Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage (two volumes), Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1938.

Contributor to periodicals, including Century, Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, Scribner's, Good Housekeeping, Harper's, Vanity Fair, New Freeman, and Seventeen.

other

(With Oliver La Farge) Introduction of American Indian Art, [New York, NY], 1931.

The Gist of Art: Principles and Practice Expounded in the Classroom and Studio, American Artists Group, New York, NY, 1939, published as John Sloan on Drawing and Painting: Gist of Art, Dover Publications (New York, NY), 2000.

Sloan's New York Scene: From the Diaries, Notes, and Correspondence 1906-1913, edited by Bruce St. John, Harper & Row (New York, NY), 1965.

Bennard B. Perlman, editor, Revolutionaries of Realism: The Letters of John Sloan and Robert Henri, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1997.

Sloan's personal papers, correspondence, and reproductions of his work are held as the Joan Sloan Collection, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington.

SIDELIGHTS: John Sloan was one of a group of painters referred to as "The Eight," which also included Robert Henri, William Glackens, George Luks, Everett Shinn, Arthur B. Davies, Maurice Prendergast, and Ernest Lawson. Sloan was the most notable of these and other artists who captured the realism of turn-of-the-twentieth-century New York and its inhabitants with what was dubbed "Ashcan Art." Sloan rejected the lingering Victorian morality in favor of representing the majority of the people, primarily immigrants, and their surroundings, as they truly were.

Sloan grew up in Philadelphia, and quit high school in order to help support his family. As a young freelancer, he designed greeting cards, calendars, and streetcar advertising and created illustrations for publications. In a time when newspapers used illustrations to enhance their news stories, Sloan found work creating people and scenes from memory with the Philadelphia Inquirer. He developed his own style, influenced by contemporary and Japanese art, in creating his etchings. He met Henri, who would forever after be his greatest influence, and left the Inquirer for its rival paper, the Philadelphia Press, where he created color puzzles and illustrations. He also illustrated many volumes for French novelist Charles Paul de Kock. Sloan married Anna M. "Dolly" Wall, an uneducated Irishwoman whose bohemian lifestyle complimented his own, and when photographs took the place of illustrations in newspapers, Sloan and Dolly decided to move to New York, where he freelanced for various magazines. It was during this period that Sloan began to paint seriously. He first created portraits but soon changed to painting city scenes.

In New York Sloan rekindled his friendship with Henri and other artists from Philadelphia who had also come to New York and produced many works inspired by city life. The Sloans lived near the Tenderloin, a section of the city known for its gambling, prostitution, and nightlife. Sloan's art reflected the soul of this New York enclave in works like his Wet Night on the Bowery and Chinese Restaurant, subjects that were not at that time supposed to be reproduced on canvas. He was inspired by the workers who made their livings as best they could, then returned home to the tenements. His work was deemed to be too vulgar and suggestive to be hung in "respectable" galleries and shows.

Smithsonian reviewer Avis Berman noted that, for the most part, Sloan limited himself to his own neighborhood of Chelsea and Greenwich, adding that "his rendering of locales is so packed with fidelity of observation that the parts genuinely stand for the whole of the city…. There was an equation for him between New York and youth and womanhood. More often than not, the central figure in one of his works is a blooming, vivid woman, and not one who looks particularly innocent…. His honest presenta tion of working women was a radical departure from conventional portrayals of femininity. To the guardians of morality, Sloan was guilty of startlingly bad taste, for which he paid the price in popularity and sales."

Sloan's work, and that of most of the others in his circle, was unacknowledged before the 1908 Macbeth Gallery exhibition, in which, as the "outlaw salon," they exhibited works that had been rejected by the critics, most notably represented by the gritty realism of Sloan's art. It was this event, along with the Armory Show of 1913, that elevated Sloan in the art world.

Sloan, who had earlier been influenced by the paintings of European masters, now found meaning in French modernism and began to concentrate on the three-dimensional female form. He and Henri organized a sequel to the Macbeth show in 1910 and invited other artists to participate. It was a nonjuried, prizeless show that enabled organizers to showcase the work of progressive young artists. Sloan cofounded and was president of the Society for Independent Artists, which continued to stage such open shows from its inception until 1944.

Sloan joined the Socialist Party and drew for the Masses, a socialist magazine. He also made two unsuccessful runs for the New York State assembly, in 1910 and 1913. He began painting New England landscapes and, beginning in 1914, he spent five summers in Gloucester, Massachusetts. While his earlier paintings had been worked in earth tones, he now used more color. He taught at the Art Students League, and his students included many well-known artists. Although Sloan was given a one-man show at the Whitney in 1916, he did not make his first sale to a major museum until 1921, when the Metropolitan Museum bought Dust Storm.

In the 1920s Sloan bought a home in New Mexico where he painted landscapes and became interested in Native American art. At the age of fifty, he had sold only eight paintings. Still, by the 1940s he no longer needed to accept freelance illustrating assignments and concentrated on those projects that he chose, including paintings of nudes later and urban scenes. When Dolly died, he married Helen Farr, a former student. Sloan spent nearly every summer in Santa Fe until the end of his life. He was diagnosed with intestinal cancer a few days before his eightieth birthday and died from complications of surgery.

In his The Gist of Art: Principles and Practice Expounded in the Classroom and Studio, the most recent edition of which was published in 2000, Sloan offers technical guidance, but also his philosophy on being an artist. John Loughery's 1995 work John Sloan: Painter and Rebel is the first complete biography of the artist since 1955, when Van Wyck Brooks wrote John Sloan: A Painter's Life. New Republic reviewer Christine Stansell wrote that Loughery's volume "pushes us toward a more serious understanding of Sloan's art…. Deceptively simple, Sloan's pictures reward renewed scrutiny, and Loughery's book encourages us to take a second look. Sloan was the first American painter to grasp the modern city's ways of hawking and pitching its parts, the manner in which the lights from a display window, spilling over onto the pavement, case a penumbra of interest around the most mundane passers-by, picking out the scene as ripe with the odd tales in which New York abounds."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

American Art Nouveau, Hammermill Paper Company (Lock Haven, PA), 1967.

Brooks, Van Wyck, John Sloan: A Painter's Life, 1955.

Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 5: 1951-1955, American Council of Learned Societies, 1977.

Elzea, Rowland, and Elizabeth Hawkes, John Sloan: Spectator of Life, Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington, DE), 1988.

Elzea, Rowland, John Sloan's Oil Paintings: A Catalogue Raisonne (two volumes; "American Arts" series), University of Delaware Press (Newark, DE), 1991.

Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1998.

Gallatin, A. E., editor, John Sloan, Dutton (New York, NY), 1925.

Goodrich, Lloyd, John Sloan, 1952.

Gordon, Robert, John Butler Yeats and John Sloan: The Records of a Friendship, Dolmen Press (Dublin, Ireland), 1978.

International Dictionary of Art and Artists, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1990.

John Sloan: The Gloucester Years, Springfield Library and Museums Association for the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts (Springfield, MA), 1980.

John Sloan/Robert Henri, Their Philadelphia Years, 1886-1904, October 1 to November 12, 1976, Moore College of Art Gallery, Moore College of Art Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), 1976.

Loughery, John, John Sloan: Painter and Rebel, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1995.

New York through the Eyes of John Sloan and John Marin: October 30-November 24, 1984, Kennedy Galleries (New York, NY), 1984.

Perlman, Bennard B., editor, Revolutionaries of Realism: The Letters of John Sloan and Robert Henri, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1997.

Scott, David W., and E. John Bullard, John Sloan, 1871-1951: His Life and Paintings [by] David W. Scott; His Graphics [by] E. John Bullard, National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), 1971.

Scott, David W., John Sloan, Watson-Guptill (New York, NY), 1975.

Sloan, John, Sloan's New York Scene: From the Diaries, Notes, and Correspondence 1906-1913, edited by Bruce St. John, Harper & Row (New York, NY), 1965.