Born in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania on August 2, 1871, John Sloan’s family moved to Philadelphia when Sloan was still a boy. Sloan later worked at a bookstore while taking evening art courses, which led to his obtaining an illustrator position at the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Eight
Sloan then began more formal instruction at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and through his newspaper work and art studies became part of a unique circle of painters. This group, formed by artists Robert Henri, William Glackens, George Luks and Everett Shinn, would eventually expand to include Arthur B. Davies, Ernest Lawson and Maurice Prendergast, and collectively become known as The Eight. Henri in particular was The Eight’s driving, energetic force.
The group was later labeled the “Ashcan” School, presumably because of their realistic or socially-oriented subject matter, which standards of the time regarded as less than aesthetically pleasing. The term ashcan itself refers to trash barrels or cans, with contemporary critics complaining that The Eight were trying to present such grimy objects and accompanying views as artistically worthy.
In 1904, Sloan and his wife Dolly left Philadelphia for New York, joining Henri and the others who had already migrated east to explore the diverse scenes of America’s then-largest city. Sloan set up a studio in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, working on various paintings while paying bills through commercial illustration work.
New York Life
Sloan was fascinated by New York, and paintings like McSorley’s Bar, Backyards Greenwich Village and Six O’Clock, Winter provide glimpses of his distinct time and place. Other works such as The Coffee Line (1905) and Sloan’s association with the radical journal The Masses show a true commitment to the poor and unfortunate.
In The Coffee Line, faceless men wait on a cold night just for a single free cup of warmth, while Sloan’s illustration of the 1911 Triangle Factory fire that killed 146 garment workers fully placed blame on greedy businessmen and sweatshop labor conditions. Sloan was a member of the Socialist Party from 1910 until about 1914, but he claimed that humanity was the key to his art rather than a fixed political agenda.
The Eight’s groundbreaking 1908 exhibit at the Macbeth Gallery drew vast crowds and moved the group’s work from the fringes of acceptance to the vanguard of American art. Sloan was also part of another avant-garde exhibit, the 1913 Armory Show in New York, and with Dadaist Marcel Duchamp later founded the Society of Independent Artists. Additionally, Sloan was a respected teacher at New York’s Art Students League, with future talents Jackson Pollock and Alexander Calder among his many pupils.
Gist of Art and Later Years
Another of Sloan’s students, Helen Farr, took assiduous notes during his classes and lectures, and these would form the basis of Gist of Art, a book of Sloan’s teachings and theories published in 1939. Sloan’s wife Dolly died in 1943, leaving a great void in Sloan’s life following a forty year marriage and shared commitment to radical causes. Sloan married Helen Farr soon after, however, and again Helen would assume a major role in the preservation and promotion of Sloan’s artwork.
Beyond New York, Sloan visited New Mexico and New England for an occasional change of perspective, becoming quite involved in the Santa Fe art scene. In later years, Sloan focused attention on nude studies, using a slower, more meticulous approach than that of his Eight-influenced paintings.
John Sloan died in New Hampshire in September of 1951. One of America’s great realist artists, his work can be found in such institutions as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Carnegie Museum of Art, The Phillips Collection and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston — to name a few. The Delaware Art Museum also organized the traveling exhibit, Seeing the City: Sloan’s New York, and has provided an on-line feature to compare scenes of Sloan’s early 20th century Manhattan to the Manhattan of today.
Sources
- Seeing the City: Sloan’s New York: About John Sloan -- Delaware Art Museum
- Spectator Painter -- Time Magazine, January 1952
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