Sloan, John

Sloan, John, 1871–1951, American painter and etcher, b. Lock Haven, Pa. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and worked for 12 years as an illustrator on the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Press. In 1905 he went to New York City, where he worked as an illustrator. A member of the Eight, he was active in organizing the Society of Independent Artists and was its president from 1918. Long a popular teacher at the Art Students League of New York City, he was elected president in 1930. His scenes of city life and his nude studies are in leading museums throughout the United States. Characteristic are McSorley's Bar (Detroit Inst. of Arts); Renganeschi's, Saturday Night (Art Inst., Chicago); Wake of the Ferry (Phillips Memorial Gall., Washington, D.C.); and Nude with Nine Apples (Whitney Mus., New York City). Sloan's painting owes its distinction to a natural interest in human beings, whose life he portrayed with a directness often verging on satire. As an etcher he was equally gifted.

See his Gist of Art (1939); his correspondence ed. by B. St. John (1965); prints by P. Morse (1969); biographies by B. St. John (1971) and J. Loughery (1995); studies by L. Goodrich (1952), V. W. Brooks (1955), and D. W. Scott and E. J. Bullard (1971).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: American and Canadian Art: Biographies