John Sloan
Sloan, John
Born Aug. 2, 1871, in Lock Haven, Pa.: died Sept. 7, 1951, in Hanover, N. H. American painter and graphic artist.
Sloan studied in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy (1892-93) and in the studio of R. Henri. In 1904 he moved to New York, where he did illustrations for magazines. From 1912 to 1916, Sloan was art editor for the socialist magazine The Masses, and in 1926 he became a contributing illustrator to The New Masses. He was a member of The Eight (formed in 1908) and a leading representative of the realistic ashcan school.
Sloan painted in a very free and spontaneous manner (Pigeons, 1910, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). His drawings and etchings show great precision and sharpness. Sloan revealed the seamy side of life in the slums and backyards of the capitalist city, sometimes with irony and a sense of the grotesque, sometimes sadly and sympathetically.