John Sloan

John Sloan (1871-1951), American painter and etcher. John French Sloan was born on August 2, 1871, in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, in Philadelphia. He worked as an illustrator for newspapers and periodicals in Philadelphia and New York and was an instructor at the Art Students League in New York from 1914 to 1938, except for the year 1930-1931, when he served as its president. Sloan was a member of the group of outstanding American artists known as The Eight, and also derisively as the Ashcan School because its members painted ruthlessly realistic scenes of city life. Sloan's paintings in the style of this school are especially noted for the vivid characterizations of people. He also painted scenes of Native American life in New Mexico and numerous portraits and nudes. Among Sloan's best-known paintings are McSorley's Bar (before 1905, Detroit Institute of Arts), Sunday, Women Drying Their Hair (1912, Addison Gallery, Andover, Massachusetts), and Backyards, Greenwich Village (1914, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York). He was the author of Gist of Art (1939). Sloan died in September 1951 in Hanover, New Hampton.