John Sloan 1871-1951
Works
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Storm Sky, Palisades, 1908
Biography
Photo of Sloan in 1891
Born and raised in Philadelphia, John Sloan eventually migrated to New York where he became a member of “The Eight,” a dynamic group of painters also known as the “Ashcan School” due to their gritty, coarse portrayals of urban life during the early part of the twentieth century. Painting primarily in New York City, they departed from the academic tradition of realism and went on to cultivate their own, less refined, and thus perhaps more organic brand of realism with which they depicted scenes ranging from virile barrooms to upper class leisure activities in Central Park. They employed thick impasto and rapid brushstroke in order to express the vibrant, and often crude or raw energy of the city. Having worked primarily as an illustrator, Sloan’s studies with Thomas Anschutz at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, as well as his association with the “Philadelphia Five”- Glackens, Luks, Henri, Shinn and himself – elevated his career to that of painter. He participated with this fine group, among others, in the pivotal exhibition, The Eight, at the Macbeth Gallery in 1908. Sloan continued to work as an illustrator for publications such as Harper’s and Scribner’s although his career as a painter had already taken flight.
Following the Armory Show in 1913, Sloan turned his attention to formal concerns and away from the subject matter for which he had become known. He began to incorporate the color theories promoted by Hardesty Maratta in landscape paintings, and his travels in the United States encouraged new subject matter, in particular, scenes of Santa Fe, New Mexico, which became his second home. (Maratta promoted the use of his paints in association with a theory of color usage, based on a scale of tonal gradations that would uniformly systematize the palette.) Throughout his career he continued to represent the vigor of the city, but Sloan also found that the spirit and surroundings of places such as Gloucester, Massachusetts and Santa Fe provided equal inspiration to his oeuvre.
Following the Armory Show in 1913, Sloan turned his attention to formal concerns and away from the subject matter for which he had become known. He began to incorporate the color theories promoted by Hardesty Maratta in landscape paintings, and his travels in the United States encouraged new subject matter, in particular, scenes of Santa Fe, New Mexico, which became his second home. (Maratta promoted the use of his paints in association with a theory of color usage, based on a scale of tonal gradations that would uniformly systematize the palette.) Throughout his career he continued to represent the vigor of the city, but Sloan also found that the spirit and surroundings of places such as Gloucester, Massachusetts and Santa Fe provided equal inspiration to his oeuvre.
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