42 Facts About John Sloan

John French Sloan was an American painter and etcher.

John Sloan is considered to be one of the founders of the Ashcan school of American art.

John Sloan was a member of the group known as The Eight.

John Sloan is best known for his urban genre scenes and ability to capture the essence of neighborhood life in New York City, often observed through his Chelsea studio window.

John Sloan was born in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, on August 2,1871, to James Dixon Sloan, a man with artistic leanings who made an unsteady income in a succession of jobs, and Henrietta Ireland Sloan, a schoolteacher from an affluent family.

John Sloan grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he lived and worked until 1904, when he moved to New York City.

John Sloan dropped out of school in order to work full-time as an assistant cashier at Porter and Coates, a bookstore and seller of fine prints.

John Sloan's duties were light, allowing him many hours to read the books and examine the works in the store's print department.

John Sloan began making etchings, which were sold in the store for a modest sum.

In 1890, the offer of a higher salary persuaded Sloan to leave his position to work for A Edward Newton, a former clerk for Porter and Coates who had opened his own stationery store.

At Newton's, John Sloan designed greeting cards and calendars and continued to work on his etchings.

John Sloan soon left Newton's business in quest of greater freedom as a freelance commercial artist in 1891, but this venture produced little income.

Later that same year, John Sloan began taking evening classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under the guidance of the realist Thomas Anshutz.

In 1892, John Sloan met Robert Henri, a talented painter and charismatic advocate of artistic independence who became his mentor and closest friend.

Towards the end of 1895, John Sloan decided to leave The Philadelphia Inquirer to work in the art department of The Philadelphia Press.

John Sloan's schedule was now less rigid, allowing him more time to paint.

John Sloan became increasingly prolific, but he sold little, and he continued to rely on his earnings as a freelancer for The Philadelphia Press, for which he continued to draw weekly puzzles until 1910.

John Sloan organized a touring exhibition of the paintings from that show that traveled to several cities from Newark to Chicago and elicited considerable discussion in the press about less academic approaches to art and new definitions of acceptable subject matter.

John Sloan's growing discontent with what he called "the Plutocracy's government" led him to join the Socialist Party in 1910.

Dolly John Sloan became active in Socialist projects at this time.

John Sloan became the art editor of The Masses with the December 1912 issue and contributed powerful anti-war and anti-capitalist drawings to other socialist publications as well, such as the Call and Coming Nation.

John Sloan was never an ally of the Communist Party in the United States, although he remained hopeful that the Soviet Union would succeed in creating an egalitarian society.

John Sloan has been called "the premier artist of the Ashcan School who painted the inexhaustible energy and life of New York City during the first decades of the twentieth century".

Also in 1913, John Sloan participated in the legendary Armory Show.

John Sloan served as a member of the organizing committee and exhibited two paintings and five etchings.

The next year, John Sloan married Helen Farr, a former student forty years his junior with whom he had been romantically involved for a time in the 1930s.

On September 7,1951, John Sloan died of cancer while vacationing in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Helen Farr John Sloan, who became a noted philanthropist in her later years, oversaw the distribution of his unsold works to major museums throughout the country.

John Sloan's training consisted of his study and reproduction of works by painters such as Rembrandt, a few classes at various institutions, mentorship by Robert Henri, and his work experience as an etcher and draughtsman.

The high school that John Sloan attended had a good art department, but it is not known whether he gained any training there.

John Sloan worked several jobs in draughtsmanship, etching, and commercial artwork before he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied briefly under Thomas Anshutz.

The experience John Sloan gathered from his various press jobs provided him with a certain amount of knowledge and allowed room for him to explore and expand in his free time.

John Sloan sought additional guidance from Ruskin's The Elements of Drawing and John Collier's A Manual of Oil Painting.

At a young age, John Sloan had been exposed to numerous books and reproductions through his uncle, Alexander Priestley, who held an extensive collection in his library.

When John Sloan entered his position at The Philadelphia Press his newspaper drawings reflected the style of Leech, Charles Keene and George du Maurier.

John Sloan came to feel that it homogenized too many different painters, concentrated viewers' attention on content rather than style, and presupposed a muckraking intent.

John Sloan's wariness was not misplaced: exhibitions of Ashcan art in recent decades often stress its documentary quality and importance as part of an historical record, whereas Sloan felt that any artist worth anything had to be appreciated for his skilled brushwork, color, and composition.

John Sloan tended to observe city dwellers interacting in an intimate setting.

John Sloan's paintings are represented in almost all major American museums.

John Sloan's students included Peggy Bacon, Aaron Bohrod, Alexander Calder, Reginald Marsh, Xavier J Barile, Barnett Newman, Minna Citron, and Norman Raeben.

John Sloan saw his people as part of larger totality, the carnal and cozy body of the city itself.

The lobby of the United States Post Office in Bronxville, New York, features a mural by John Sloan painted in 1939 and titled The Arrival of the First Mail in Bronxville in 1846 commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.