Evening star., 1939-02-12
By Leila MechLih.

artists none holds higher place than
John Sloan, collection of whose
prints and drawings, enhanced by
three of his paintings lent by the
Phillips Memorial Gallery, is now on
view in the Arts Club of Washing
ton, opening on the 5th and con-
tinuing to the 17th of this month.
Mr.. Sloan has been conspicuous in
the art world for leadership as we'll
as for achievement. He was chair
man of the committee which was
responsible for the Armory EXhi-
bition in New York. back in 1912,
which revolutionized our art outlook
and he has served many times as
president of the Society of Inde-
pendents, and yet his own art is
far from being revolutionary or ex-
treme. In other words he is liberal
traditionalist, willing to give the
other fellow as much chance as he
may desire, while keeping his own
feet firmly on the ground, unmoved
by fluctuation in opinion.
HE is" says Frank Weitenkampf,
head of the art department of the
New York Public Library, IAN eX-
ponent of the virtue of tradition in
its best sense. Eminently modern
and in tune with his time, he has
yet built firmly and sanely on the
foundation of the best of the past"
Born in Lockhaven, Pa. August 2,
1871, John Sloan studied in the eve
ming classes of the Pennsylvania
Academy of the Fine Arts, under
Thomas P. Anschutz and later with
Robert Henri in New York, then
whom he could not have had better
masters. For while he did illus
trating for Harper's. Golfers, Scrib-
ner's, Everybody's and other periodi-
Gals. Also ne did publishers an
nouncements and illustrations for
various newspapers, such as the
Philadelphia Inquirer the Philadel-
phia Press and the New York Herald
The last were in what he described
as poster style" in broard fiat tints,
derived in a measure from the jap
anese prints which took his fancy.
All this grind and grill brought
him into contact with art of pur-
poseful nature, and with the best
illustrators of all time. 1t taught
him, furthermore. to be explicit. and
to express himself not only adroitly,
but intelligibly. All this is tremen-
dously to the advantage of his art,
especially the art of the printmaker.
Obviously he is an illustrator, in
l., i1I,
subjective. but the book he illus
trates is that of life, and his chosen
subjects have been those who in one
way or another have crossed his
path. What he has to say of them,
however, is said poignantly and well.
In order to achieve this end he has
mastered the technique of the me-
dium he employs, but especially we'll
does he handle the etcher's needle.
So interesting are the things that
Mr.. Sloan tells us in his etchings OF
people that the chances are we may
overlook, or forget, the enormous
skill which has gone into the max
ing. 1t is this skill which has given
vitality to the Interpretation and
permitted the extreme subtlety of
expression which donates full under
standing
Humor in Satire.
John Sloan is no preacher or re-
former, even when he shows us the
seamy side of life. His satire is at
times biting but never cruel or scorn-
full. Beneath it all is vein OF real
humor and a friendly sympathy with
mankind which includes shortcom-
ings and incidental follies. Never
does he make those he pictures dis
gustingly vulgar or utterly beyond
the pale. The art critic. together
with the art patron, not infrequently
give him material for pictorial mirth.
He sees the funny as we'll as the fool
ish side of life. but he sets it forth
engagingly, with his tongue in his
cheek at times, no doubt, but like
bad boy rather than snob.
Historians of the New York of
the first 10 years of the goth CEN
tury will always turn to John Sloan
for direct contemporary satire, as
the historians of the Paris of Louis
Philippe and the Second Empire
still depend upon Daumier, Guys
and Gavarni," wrote Duncan Phil
lips some years ago in "A Collection
In the Making" Sloan, he tells us,
became, after he settled in New
York, "passionately absorbed in the
spectacle of life and intensely con-
cerned about the curiously different
ways people live in different sections
of the same city Furthermore his
art Is 80 rooted in life that the
method of expression grows inevi-
tably out of the incidents depicted" l."
Included in the collection now
on view are such well remembered
prints as "McSorley's Back Room"
Fifth Avenue Critics. Reading
on the Subway" and The Barber
Shop" Essentially humorous are
"Copyist at the Metropolitan Mu-
seum" and Past and Futurist,"
the latter lithograph. Remin-
iscent of student days but very COM
petent in execution are a portrait OF
Robert Henri and "Anschutz dec
turing on Anatomy Charming
indeed is a study of a nude, draw
in red crayon. most sensitive and
subtle.
All in Oil.
The paintings are all in oil and
were done some years ago. They
are "Six O'clock Rush." Landscape
With Cow and I'm the Wake of
the Ferry" all of which are rather
low in tone and painted in broad
fat masses. From the technical
standpoint there is interesting con-
trast between Mr.. Sloans prints and
his paintings-the former so def
nitely, the latter so indefinitely ex-
pressed. In the field of painting Mr..
Phillips refers to him as space
composer" and tells how "he could
take the ugly facts of scene like
the deck of a ferry boat on a rainy
day and make his use of gray not