John Sloan (American 1871 – 1954), Fashions of the Past, etching and aquatint, 1926, signed and titled by the artist in pencil (Morse 224 IV/IV), also signed by the printer. From the edition of 100 (of which75 were printed, according to Morse). Annotated: Peter Platt imp (Platt was an early, and one of Sloan’s favorite, printer). In very good condition, with wide margins, with the tack holes at outer margins for drying, as usual for impressions printed by Peter Platt; on wove paper, conservation matted. 7 7/8 x 9 3/4 inches, the sheet 12 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches.

A fine fresh impression of this evocative image.

The Fashions of the Past are evident both in the store window, and on the passing crowd. Sloan’s comment on this print: ”A well-arranged shop window and the contrasting costumes of the passers-by, whose dress of the time will in turn become costumes of the past.” On one proof Sloan wrote the name of the store: Lord and Taylor.

John Sloan (1871-1954), The Green Hour (or Angna Enters in “The Green Hour”), etching, 1930, signed in pencil lower right, inscribed “100 proofs” lower left [with the signature and date lower right, title lower left in the plate]. Reference: Morse 245, second state (of 2), of 90 printed. In very good condition, the full sheet with deckle edges, 5 x 4, the sheet 12 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches. Printed on a cream wove paper by Peter Platt, with his characteristic drying holes around the edges.

A superb impression.

Peter Platt was one of Sloan’s favorite printers. He printed 25 impressions of The Green Hour.

Angna Enters (1897-1989) was a mime, dancer, artist, dramatist, composer and theatrical designer, and a Sloan colleague and possibly former student, since she studied at the Art Students League in New York after 1919 (Sloan taught there from about 1914 to 1924). He wrote: “I have made several etchings  produced under the inspiration of the creative genius of Angna Enters. This one has given me great satisfaction.”

Detail

]]> http://harrisschrank.com/the-green-hour-or-angna-enters-in-the-green-hour.htm/feed 0 http://harrisschrank.com/half-nude-on-elbow.htm http://harrisschrank.com/half-nude-on-elbow.htm#comments Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:28:51 +0000 Harris Schrank http://harrisschrank.com/?p=3938 John Sloan (1871-1954),  Half Nude on Elbow, 1931, signed in pencil lower right, titled lower middle, annotated “100 proofs” lower left. Reference: Morse 250, sixth state (of 6). From the edition of 75 printed. Printed by Peter Platt, with his characteristic drying tack holes at the bottom and left of the sheet, with wide margins,  printed on a cream wove paper, 3 x 5, the sheet 9 x 11 1/2 inches. A fine impression. Sloan routinely wrote “100 proofs” on many of his prints, regardless of the actual number of impressions printed. In this case a total of 75 impressions were printed [...]]]>

John Sloan (1871-1954),  Half Nude on Elbow, 1931, signed in pencil lower right, titled lower middle, annotated “100 proofs” lower left. Reference: Morse 250, sixth state (of 6). From the edition of 75 printed. Printed by Peter Platt, with his characteristic drying tack holes at the bottom and left of the sheet, with wide margins,  printed on a cream wove paper, 3 x 5, the sheet 9 x 11 1/2 inches.

A fine impression.

Sloan routinely wrote “100 proofs” on many of his prints, regardless of the actual number of impressions printed. In this case a total of 75 impressions were printed in the definitive state, 25 by his favored printer Peter Platt and 50 by Ernest Roth.

At this stage of his career Sloan had seen the Rembrandts and other old master paintings now-installed in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and was experimenting with new approaches to painting, including the use of a cross-hatching technique to achieve varying tonalities. His etchings of nudes, such as Nude with Furniture, were done as part of this evolving aesthetic, at a time when Sloan was perhaps more focused on being a fine artist than portraying local landmarks (though of course these nudes were landmarks of a sort).

In this context, Sloan’s later (1945) comment on this print is of interest: “Here there is an attempt at linework of too much delicacy which interferes with the sense of realization.” Curiously, the intricate linework in Half Nude is reminiscent of many of Rembrandt’s etchings.

Detail

John Sloan (1871-1954), Nude with Furniture, etching, 1931, signed in pencil lower right, titled lower middle, annotated “100 proofs” lower left. Reference: Morse 252, third state (of 3). From the edition of only 45 printed. Printed by Peter Platt, with his characteristic drying tack holes all around, in very good condition, the full sheet with deckle edges; printed on a cream wove paper with the Van Gelder Zonen Holland and the JP in a square watermark, 5 x 4, the sheet 12 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches.

A fine impression.

Sloan routinely wrote “100 proofs” on many of his prints, regardless of the actual number of impressions printed. In this case only a total of 45 impressions were printed in the definitive state, 25 by his favored printer Peter Platt and 20 by Ernest Roth.

Sloan wrote of this print: “This etching seems to catch the ‘ethereal’ quality of flesh amid furniture and draperies, although I must admit I had no such purpose in mind.” His wife Helen Sloan Farr wrote: “The furniture in the back ground was ‘invented.’ The Windsor chair was made by one of his cabinetmaker Sloan ancestors.”

At this stage of his career Sloan had seen the Rembrandts and other old master paintings now-installed in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and was experimenting with new approaches to painting, including the use of a cross-hatching technique to achieve varying tonalities. His etchings of nudes, such as Nude with Furniture, were done as part of this evolving aesthetic, at a time when Sloan was perhaps more focused on being a fine artist than portraying local landmarks (though of course these nudes were landmarks of a sort).

Detail

John Sloan (1871-1951), Fourteenth Street, The Wigwam (also known as Tammany Hall), etching, 1928, signed, titled, and inscribed 100 proofs; also signed by printer Peter Platt. Reference: Morse 235, seventh state (of 7). From the edition of 100, 110 were printed. In excellent condition, the full sheet with the drying holes all around as characteristic of Peter Platt impressions, paper loss upper left corner margin corner, with full margins, on a wove paper, 9 3/4 x 7, the sheet 19 x 12 3/4 inches, archival window mat.

A fine clear impression.

Peter Platt was a favorite Sloan printer.

Tammany Hall was the notorious headquarters of the New York City political machine. Sloan writes: “Old Tammany Hall, the headquarters of the bosses of New York City….lurked, menacing, in dingy red brick, facing the tawdry amusements of East Fourteenth Street.”

Sloan’s painting of Tammany Hall in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, done for the Federal Art Project, was copied directly from this etching.

John Sloan (1871-1951), Night Windows (also referred to by Sloan as Roof and Windows, and Man on Roof), etching, 1910, signed, titled and annotated 100 proofs in pencil [also signed and dated in the plate lower left]. Reference:Morse 152, state 5 (of 5). Edition 100 (110 printed). In very good condition (minor toning in the margins well away from image), 5 1/8 x 6 3/4 inches (130 x 171 mm); sheet size 9 5/8 x 12 1/2 inches (232 x 318 mm).

A fine, rich impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (2 1/4 to 2 7/8 inches).

The tack holes near the margin edges of this impression indicate that it was printed by Peter Platt, one of Sloan’s favorite printers; Platt impressions are coveted by Sloan collectors since they are invariably masterfully printed - fine, rich, and black.

Years later Sloan wrote of Night Windows: “While his faithful wife is doing the wash downstairs my neighbor casts a roving eye across the areaway. A commonplace or even vulgar incident may produce a work of art.”

Exhibited in the Armory Show, New York, February 1913.

John Sloan (1871-1954), Nude on the Floor, etching and engraving, 1931, signed, titled and annotated “100 proofs” [also signed in the plate]. Reference: Morse 257, third state (of 3), from the edition of 100 of which only 75 were printed, on cream laid paper, in excellent condition, with full margins, 4 x 5, the sheet 8 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches, archival mounting (non-adhesive mylar hinges, acid free board).

A fine fresh impression in pristine condition.

Sloan said of this print: “One of the best of this group of etchings. Shows my interest in achieving foreshortening without perspective. …If I had done fifty plates as good, there would be something the matter. This kind of merit might become very monotonous. I might become a skilled craftsman….I have been playing around with the graver lately. It is very amusing and I like the clean severe line you can get with it. It is quite difficult to control a curved line, that is, to get something that isn’t just an ordinary curve. This plate of the Nude on the Floor has a great deal of graved work in it. These sets of graved lines have something that etched lines don’t have – a different tone.”

At this stage in his career, after the Ashcan Realist period and now in his late ’50s, Sloan experimented with new approaches to painting and drawing based on his study of Goya, Rembrandt, and Renoir – whose works were now accessible in New York. He developed a grid-line approach to his work, using his etched (and here also engraved) nudes to explore the concept. Viewed in this aesthetic context, we can appreciate Sloan’s nudes as achievements which transcend – artistically – the popular New York subjects that he did in earlier years, and demonstrate convincingly Sloan’s importance as an artist, not just a chronicler of a period.

John Sloan (1871-1951), Woman with Hand to Her Chin, etching, c. 1913, signed in pencil by Sloan’s widow Helen Farr Sloan and annotated 150 proofs; also signed by the printer June Baskin and annotated “imp” lower left. Reference: Morse 165, only state. In very good condition, the full sheet, printed on a cream wove paper, 6 1/2 x 3 1/4, the sheet 10 1/4 x 6 3/4 inches, archival mounting.

A fine impression.

No early impressions of this print are known, and it was first printed in an edition in 1969, as signed by Sloan’s widow, for distribution with the Morse catalogue raisonne of Sloan’s prints.

Morse notes that the model appears to be a Miss La Rue, who posed for other Sloan prints such as Head with Necklace (M 163) and Girl in Kimono (M 164), and other paintings and drawings of that period. The plate may have been a demonstration plate for teaching, and thus no edition was issued at the time the plate was made.

John Sloan ((1871-1951), Westminster Abbey, c. 1891, the complete set of 13 etchings, ribbon bound with a hand-painted gilt cover [many of the etchings signed and variously annotated in the plate]. Reference: Morse 11-23, only state.  Printed by Peters Brothers and published by A. Edward Newton (1864-1940). The etching image matrices are in excellent condition, the full sheets with wide margins (slight soiling and foxing near margin edges, the first (blank) page with some losses; other pages with nicks, some water stains not near images). Etchings are c. 3 1/4 x 5, the sheets  8 x 10 1/4 inches.

These etchings are finely and delicately printed in dark brown or sepia ink on heavy wove paper; an exceedingly rare set of these very early Sloan etchings.

Morse knew of only one complete set of Westminster Abbey, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which is also with an embossed and painted cardboard cover (also with the illustration of hand-painted flowers, but in the Philadelphia set the flowers are placed a bit further to the right) tied with a ribbon (a flat ribbon in Philadelphia, braided here).

Although the publisher’s name is not on the volume, Sloan recalled doing this series for A. Edward Newton, who in later years became America’s most revered rare book collector. Sloan had worked at a bookshop in Philadelphia called Porter and Coates after high school, where Newton was a young salesman. After Newton left and set up a “fancy goods” business he recruited (with a three dollar a week raise) Sloan as a designer, and Sloan, who had learned etching techniques from reading at Porter and Coates, suggested doing some etching sets. He created the Westminster Abbey series after photogravures made after paintings by English artist Alfred Dawson (Sloan never left the US). Size differences and other comparisons with a few of the photogravures that have been located show that Sloan did not trace them but copied them freehand.

Although A. Edward Newton achieved fame as a rare book collector and author, very little is known about the few early “books” he did with Sloan, including the size of the editions. Morse noted that “In many respects [Newton] was the first man to popularize book collecting beyond a small select group. For this reason his works have themselves become the object of book collectors…” Yet although this bound set is quite beautiful, and may have been produced in relatively large numbers, this appears to be the only bound complete set known outside of the Philadelphia Museum set.

The 6 illustrative plates are signed by Sloan and variously titled and annotated, e.g., the Poet’s Corner includes names of several poets. The 6 title plates have verses as well as titles and are illustrated with decorative designs, e.g., the West Front title with an “Ancient Coronation Chair”; the Poet’s Corner title with a harp; the Henry VII Chapel title with a knight’s armor and shield.
It is likely that Sloan designed the gilt tower on the cover, which is very similar to the etched tower; the hand painted flowers may have been done by him or, more probably, by one of the 28 (!) women of varying ages who worked at Newton’s with  Sloan (the only male) painting frolicking French lovers and  flowers and on the covers of candy boxes, portfolios, and novelties at Newton’s store.

John Sloan (1871-1954) etching, James B. Moore, Esq., signed in pencil lower right and inscribed “100 proofs” lower left (although only 25 were printed). [Also signed and dated lower left, and titled upper left, in the plate.] Reference: Morse 126. Third state of three. In very good condition, on a cream wove watermarked Van Gelder-Zonen Holland paper, archival matting.  Plate size 12 x 10, picture size 11 1/4 x 9 1/4, sheet 15 x 12 1/2, with the drying holes at left and right margin edges. This paper, the characteristic drying holes, as well as the high quality of the impression, indicate that Peter Platt (one of the great printers at the time, and one of Sloan’s favorite) was the printer.

A very good impression of this great rarity. We have not seen another impression of this print on the market in over 25 years. Sloan routinely put an edition size on his prints, but this often represented wishful thinking, or at least habit; in this case Morse gives a printing size of 25.

Sloan’s notes to his friend, advisor and supporter John Quinn tend to confirm the rarity of the print, and give us a good notion of who Moore was: “My dear Quinn – I have just unearthed this in going through some old proofs. It was drawn on copper from the life. It represents James B. Moore who, as proprietor of The Cafe Francis, Bohemian Rendezvous, figures quite importantly in the artistic life of New York. His house, ‘The Secret Lair Beyond the Moat’ was the scene of such gay parties as few of us who participated can hope or wish to see again. He dozed in the chair while I drew the copper…”

The picture at the upper right appears to portray the devil toasting a couple writhing in bed.