'Indian Detour' — 1920s New Mexico

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John Sloan
'Indian Detour' — 1920s New Mexico
1927

About the Item

John Sloan, 'Indian Detour', etching, 1927, edition 100, Morse 231. Signed, titled, and annotated '100 proofs' in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower right. Printed by Charles White and annotated 'Chas White imp.' by the printer in pencil, bottom left margin. A fine, richly-inked impression, on cream laid paper, with full margins (1 1/4 to 2 1/2 inches); toned 1/4 inch into the top sheet edge from previous adhesive tape; the palest trace of toning within the original mat opening, otherwise in excellent condition. Image size 5 7/8 x 7 1/8 inches (149 x 181 mm); sheet size 9 7/16 x 12 3/8 inches (240 x 314 mm). Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. Collections: Carnegie Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Harwood Museum of Art (Taos), Indianapolis Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Library of Congress (Pennell Fund purchase). ABOUT THIS WORK “A satire of the Harvey Indian Tour. Buses take the tourists out to view the Indian dances, which are religious ceremonials and naturally not understood as such by the visiting crowds”. This scene is identified as the corn dance at Santa Dominga Pueblo, in an updated article from the Santa Fe New Mexican of August or September 1936. —from 'John Sloan’s Prints', Peter Morse, Yale University Press, 1969. Indian Detours were the idea of the legendary Fred Harvey Company, renowned in part for their chain of ‘eating houses’ hosted by Harvey Girls along the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad between 1876 and 1968. In response to the economic hardships of the early 1900s, the Harvey Company developed a unique collaboration with the Native American pueblos throughout the Southwest that permanently changed the traveler’s experience. In 1902, train travel and Southwest tourism were waning. To help rejuvenate enthusiasm, the Harvey Company created an “Indian Department”, which commissioned artists, photographers, and ethnographers to depict the Southwest’s unique “Indian” lifestyle and culture. Images portraying the “romance and mystique of the Southwest” appeared on brochures, pamphlets, menus, and postcards. In 1925, up against the slump of business caused by the increasing popularity of automobile, and airplane travel, the Harvey Company began developing the idea of “Indian Detours” at their Southwest hotel locations, from the Grand Canyon to Santa Fe. The specialized tours by car were to divert passengers from the train for 1 to 3 days and drive them through the “wilderness panoramas” of Northern New Mexico to Indian ruin sites, and living pueblos. Cars were bought, and drivers and couriers were educated by field trips and up to four months of in-depth study on the area. In May 1926, the Indian Detours officially began. The fleet of “Harveycars” included Packards, Franklins, Cadillacs, and White Motor Co. Buses. They whisked “detourists” or “dudes” (as they became known) away into the heart of the rugged New Mexico terrain in style. Harvey Drivers were always men, wearing a western, cowboy-style outfit. The tricky effects of New Mexico’s steep dirt roads on those big, beautiful cars called for each driver to have at least four years experience as a mechanic. Cars were inspected regularly, cleaned thoroughly after every tour, and replaced every other year. The success of the Harvey Girls in the dining rooms and hotels across the country inspired the continuation of hiring only women for the role of tour guides or “couriers.” Harvey Couriers were dressed in “Navajo-style” costumes, which included velveteen skirts, concha belts, and squash blossom necklaces. ABOUT THE ARTIST Dubbed the “dean of American artists,” John Sloan was one of the most influential members of the Ashcan School. Born in 1871 in Lock Haven, PA, he lived and worked in Philadelphia for most of his early career. Self-taught in etching, he enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts between 1892-1894, where he studied under Thomas Anshutz. Sloan began his career in commercial illustration in 1892 working for the Philadelphia Inquirer; later moving to the art department at the Philadelphia Press. A member of the ‘Philadelphia Five’, he frequently met with William Glackens, George Luks, Everett Shinn, and Robert Henri at Henri's studio. Henri had a profound influence on Sloan and encouraged him to pursue a fine art career. Sloan moved to New York City in 1904, then the nation’s cultural and intellectual center and the home of a flourishing art scene. He quickly came to love New York and described it as the “gayest of cities, the cosmopolitan palette where the spectrum changed in every side of the street.” Sloan’s subjects, as diverse and varied as the city itself, celebrated the lives of ordinary Americans in a way that was unprecedented in American art. He painted and etched New York’s great avenues and landmarks, the tenements of the Lower East Side, the sweeping vistas of the Manhattan skyline, the crowd of working-class men at McSorley’s Bar, the audience in the moving picture house, the election night festivities in Herald Square, and the trio of women drying their hair on a Sunday morning. Sloan’s images of New York provided a sprawling and comprehensive pictorial testament to urban life and culture. His student, Guy Péne du Bois aptly described him as the “historian of Sixth Avenue, Fourteenth Street, Union Square, and Madison Square.” Sloan was keenly aware of New York’s rapidly changing environment and acknowledged that “the fun of being a New York painter is that landmarks are torn down so rapidly that your canvases become historical records before the paint on them is dry.” Sloan’s works are particularly distinctive in the Ashcan genre due to his strong political commitments. In 1910, he joined the Socialist Party and in 1912 began creating illustrations for the popular socialist magazine ‘The Masses’. In spite of great economic prosperity, New York also presented the Ashcan artists with glaring inequalities between the classes. The city itself was physically divided by neighborhoods of grand mansions juxtaposed to poor immigrant communities and dilapidated slums. Sloan was undoubtedly influenced by the socially conscious art of the Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco. Though he never espoused propaganda, his socialist beliefs resonate in his urban scenes and deeply sympathetic treatment of lower-class subjects. An esteemed art instructor, Sloan had a profound influence on his students. Beginning in 1914, he taught at the Art Students League and later at the George Luks School of Art. After his death, the art critic Edward Allan Jewel wrote: “He is the artist’s guide, philosopher and friend. He is himself the artist through and through. And he brings to the profession of teaching a fervor so intense that it may be described as mystical. There are, to be sure, many liberal and independent minds. There are many artists, many teachers. There is only one John Sloan.” John Sloan left a lasting mark on 20th-century American art and an important legacy for succeeding generations of American artists. After his death, Life Magazine asserted that no living man had a greater influence in the American Art world. His works memorialize a vibrant era of New York’s history and continue to be collected by every major museum including, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Museum of American Art.

Creator:
John Sloan (1832-1932, American)
Creation Year:
1927
Dimensions:
Height: 5.88 in (14.94 cm)Width: 7.13 in (18.12 cm)Depth: 0.01 in (0.26 mm)
Medium:
Etching
Movement & Style:
Ashcan School
Period:
1920-1929
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Myrtle Beach, SC
Reference Number:
Seller: 1039231stDibs: LU53239009572