Swinging in the Square (also 'In the Park')

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John Sloan
Swinging in the Square (also 'In the Park')
1912

About the Item

John Sloan, 'Swinging in the Square (In the Park)', etching, 1912, edition 100, (only 75 printed), Morse 156. Signed and titled in pencil. Annotated '100 proofs' and 'JS Imp. (old paper)' in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower left. A superb, richly inked impression on antique, cream, wove paper, with full margins (1 to 2 1/8 inches), in excellent condition. A scarce proof impression, printed by the artist, on antique paper. “Stuyvesant Square. The peak of the swing, like the cover for the 'Masses', with deeper meaning." —from the catalogue raisonnee ‘John Sloan’s Prints', Peter Morse, Yale University Press, 1969. Impressions of this work are in the following museum collections: Brooklyn Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, Delaware Art Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art. 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:
1912
Dimensions:
Height: 4 in (10.16 cm)Width: 5.13 in (13.04 cm)Depth: 0.01 in (0.26 mm)
Medium:
Etching
Movement & Style:
Ashcan School
Period:
1910-1919
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Myrtle Beach, SC
Reference Number:
Seller: 1036171stDibs: LU53234383722