By Daniel Fulco, Ph.D., Agnita M. Stine Schreiber Curator

In celebration of John Sloan’s birthday today (August 2),we hope that you enjoy this painting in our collection.

John French Sloan (American, 1871–1951)
Windy Day, 1908
Oil on canvas
8.875″h x 11″w  
Collection of Washington County Museum of Fine Arts 
Gift of Sidney Levyne, A1473,66.0018       
 
Windy Day is far from the urban subjects for which John Sloan is best known. The intimate scale and loose, painterly brushstrokes indicate that this is a sketch, probably painted outdoors, during one of Sloan’s excursions to Gloucester, Massachusetts. The artist spent five summers—1914 through 1918—living and working on Cape Ann (near Gloucester). During these sojourns, he created nearly 300 finished oil paintings, using Gloucester’s rugged landscape as inspiration to experiment with color and explore form, texture, and light. The gestural quality of Sloan’s brushstrokes complements the windy, turbulent weather conditions that he sought to capture, especially the large, puffy clouds, which are contrasted with the dark gray and pink sky. Note that the artist also merely suggested the presence of several figures in the foreground by using white and tan dabs of paint.  
 
Sloan was a prominent member of The Eight, a group of artists that began exhibiting together in New York in 1908. Led by Robert Henri (1865–1929, whose work is also represented in the collection), these artists embraced a gritty urban aesthetic that led critics to label them the “Ashcan School.” Born in Pennsylvania, Sloan began his career as an illustrator for The Philadelphia Inquirer. In 1892, he met Henri, a charismatic teacher at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, who encouraged Sloan and his fellow illustrators George Luks (1867–1933), William Glackens (1870–1938), and Everett Shinn (1876–1953) to begin painting. Taking Henri’s advice, Sloan moved to New York City in 1903, where he painted the daily life of tenement dwellers, shop attendants, and blue-collar workers. Like the other members of The Eight, Sloan sought to challenge the old standards for realistic subjects. He and his colleagues rejected genteel landscapes and garden scenes in favor of depictions of urban and working life.