John French Sloan and The Masses

  

John French Sloan, born 2 August 1871, was a prominent member of the so-called Ashcan School (a name he hated) of U.S. painters and a member of The Eight, which included Robert Henri, Everett Shinn, Arthur B. Davies, Ernest Lawson, Maurice Prendergast, George Luks and William Glackens.My mentor Harold Irving Smith studied with Henri at the old Art Students League in New York City and personally knew many of these giants. Sloan was a slow and ponderous workman, according the accounts of his peers, so did not have success in doing reportage for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he worked with Glackens. Both men developed great concern for the city poor and spent their lives in social protest. John Sloan died on 8 September 1951 in the month following his 80th birthday.

Click on images to enlarge them.

This is a cover that Sloan did after the Ludlow Massacre of 20 April 1914 in Colorado.

A Sloan sketch of the incident, probably used to create the cover piece, above.

A Sloan sketch of a crippled sidewalk vendor.

Sun and Wind on the Roof, painted in 1915. Oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches.

Collection of the Maier Museum of Art, Randolph-Macon Woman's College,Lynchburg, VA.

Mutoscope, A Sloan sketch of a penny arcade of the day.

John Sloan illustrated this story in The Century Magazine for April 1904.

The next series of drawings were also published in The Century Magazine a year later in the issue for July 1905.

Detail from the very fine drawing above.

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Comments

[Paul Giambarba]

Thanks for this information, Vivian. Art Young was great, and if I had more of his work in printed form I would use it. I think you mean 1916 and not 1816 for the New York Sun date. I do that all the time and never fail to be corrected. This is then a first for me. /;^) . .

[Vivian Pinto Portela da Silva]

The name Sloan hated, The Ashcan School, came from Art Young, assistante editor of The Masses (New York, 1911-1917). Young posted the following comment in the New York Sun (April, 08, 1816): Some of the artists don´t want to run pictures of ash cans and girls hitching up their skirts in Horatio Street – regarless of ideas - and without little. On the other hand a group of us believe that such picures belong better in exclusive magazines.

The comment is reproduced in the book of William O´Neill (Echoes of Revolt: The Masses, 1911-1917. Chicago: 1966, p. 06).

Yours cordialluy, Vivian Silva

Vivian Silva a post-graduated on The Language of The Arts from the University of São Paulo, Brazil.