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The John Sloan Manuscript Collection

A Finding Aid to the John Sloan Manuscript Collection,
Helen Farr Sloan Library, Delaware Art Museum

Wilmington, Delaware
2002

Accessioned: Gift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1978
Extent: 145 linear ft., 23 flat files, 10 file cabinets
Access: Unrestricted
Processed: Sarena Deglin and Eileen Myer Sklar, 2002
Contact Information:

Helen Farr Sloan Library
Delaware Art Museum
2301 Kentmere Parkway
Wilmington, DE 19806

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chronology of John Sloan
Scope and Contents Note
Organization of the Collection
Description of the Collection

CHRONOLOGY OF JOHN SLOAN

1871 - Born in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania on August 2nd to James Dixon and Henrietta Ireland Sloan.

1876 - Family moved to Germantown, later to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1884 - Attended Philadelphia's Central High School where he was classmates with William Glackens and Albert C. Barnes.

1887 - April: Left high school to work at Porter and Coates, dealer in books and fine prints.

1888 - Taught himself to etch with The Etcher's Handbook by Philip Gilbert Hamerton.

1890 - Began work for A. Edward Newton designing novelties, calendars, etc. Joined night freehand drawing class at the Spring Garden Institute. First painting, Self Portrait.

1891 - Left Newton and began work as a free-lance artist doing novelties, advertisements, lettering certificates and diplomas.

1892 - Began work in the art department of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Shared studio at 705 Walnut Street with Joe Laub. Fall: Enrolled in a class at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Thomas Anshutz. Met Robert Henri at a party hosted by Charles Grafly.

1893 - March: Co-founded the Charcoal Club with Glackens and Henri during a five-month hiatus from the Academy. Became friends with George Luks and Everett Shinn. With Laub, rented Henri's studio at 806 Walnut Street. Attended Beisen Kubota's demonstration on Japanese brush technique.

1894 - First public recognition of illustrations and poster style from Chicago magazines, The Inland Printer and Chapbook.

1895 - December: Left the Inquirer and started to work on the Philadelphia Press. Became art editor of Moods: A Journal Intime.

1897 - Began to paint seriously, inspired by Henri, mostly portraits.

1898 - Began to paint Philadelphia city scenes. Summer: In New York working on the New York Herald. October: Returned to Philadelphia and resumed working for the Press. Met Anna Maria (Dolly) Wall.

1900 - Illustrated Stephen Crane's Great Battles of the World. Included for the first time in the Pennsylvania Academy Annual. October: Exhibited Walnut Street Theater, Philadelphia at the Chicago Art Institute. November: Exhibited Independence Square at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh.

1901 - Spring: Exhibited at Allan Gallery, New York, in the first independent group show organized by Henri. Began first major work in etchings, 53 plates for illustrations for a deluxe edition of the novels of Charles Paul de Kock. Married Anna Maria (Dolly) Wall on August 5.

1903 - November: Left the Philadelphia Press but continued making "word charade" puzzles for the Press, which he continued to do through 1910. Painting Violinist, Will Bradner exhibited at the Society of American Artists.

1904 - January: Exhibited in group show at the National Arts Club in New York. April: Moved to New York. September: Took an apartment at 165 West 23rd Street. Worked as a freelance illustrator for books and magazines.

1905 - Made eight of the ten etchings of the New York City Life series. Received Honorable Mention for The Coffee Line at the Eighth International of the Carnegie Institute.

1906 - January: Began diary (continued until 1913). Spring: Substitute taught for Henri at the New York School of Art. Began landscape sketching in oils during brief summer vacation. Four of his six etchings invited to the American Watercolor Society Exhibition were returned as being "too vulgar." December: Received his first enthusiastic review for a New York scene painting, The Dust Storm, Fifth Avenue.

1907 - Mother died August 28. October-December: Taught one day a week at the Pittsburgh Art Students' League.

1908 - February: Exhibition of The Eight at the Macbeth Gallery. May: Began to make lithographs. Introduced to the Maratta Color System by Henri.

1910 - January: Joined the Socialist Party. April: Exhibited with, and served as treasurer for, the Exhibition of Independent Artists. July: Met and became a friend of John Butler Yeats. November: Ran for a seat in the New York State Assembly on the Socialist ticket.

1912 - January: Group exhibition at the MacDowell Club. Elected member of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors. May: Took a studio at 35 Sixth Avenue. October: Moved to apartment at 61 Perry Street. December: Became Acting Art Editor of The Masses.

1913 - February: Moved to apartment at 240 West Fourth Street. February: Represented by two paintings and five etchings in the International Exhibition of Modern Art Armory Show. Sold painting, Nude, Green Scarf to Dr. Albert C. Barnes.

1914 - Resigned from the Socialist Party and stopped contributing to The Masses. First of five successive summers in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

1915 - Received Bronze Medal for an etching at the San Francisco Pan-Pacific International Exposition. October: Moved to apartment at 88 Washington Place.

1916 - January: First one-man exhibition at the Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's studio, New York. February: One-man exhibition sponsored by Dr. John Weischel's People's Art Guild at Hudson Guild Social Center. Began long-time association with the Kraushaar Galleries. April: Resigned from The Masses and subsequently left the Socialist Party. Taught privately at Gloucester during the summer and then full-time at the Art Students' League.

1917 - Father died. March: First one-man show at Kraushaar Galleries. April: Helped hang the first exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists at the Grand Central Palace.

1918 - Elected president of the Society of Independent Artists. Founding member of the Whitney Studio Club.

1919 - First trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico with Dolly, Randall and Florence Davey. Duncan Phillips purchased Clown Making Up for the recently incorporated Phillips Memorial Collection.

1920 - Bought an adobe house in Santa Fe on 314 Garcia Street where he spent four months each year except 1933 and 1951. Arranged for first exhibition of contemporary Indian paintings in New York at the Society of Independent Artists.

1921 - First sale of a painting to a major museum: The Dust Storm, Fifth Avenue to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Trip to Hopi Snake Dance.

1922 - February: Death of John Butler Yeats, his close friend.

1923 - Sold twenty oil paintings to George Otis Hamlin, of New York. Was visiting critic at Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore, MD.

1924 - Served on jury of American section of Carnegie International. Resigned from the Art Students' League.

1925 - Returned to the Art Students' League.

1926 - Awarded the Gold Medal for the etching Hell Hole at the Philadelphia Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition. Mrs. Whitney gave a complete set of etchings to the Metropolitan Museum of American Art.

1927 - Moved to 53 Washington Square.

1928 - Subject matter now includes more single figure pieces. Began technique of monochrome under-painting with superimposed oil varnish glazes, separating form and color, adapting the method of Old Masters like Rubens and Titian.

1929 - Elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Substituted tempera for oil under-painting and began using line work superimposed over glazes. Death of Robert Henri.

1930 - Received Carroll H. Beck Gold Medal for Vagis, the Sculptor at the Pennsylvania Academy.

1931 - Made Honorary Member and elected president of the Art Students' League.

1932 - Began teaching drawing and painting at the of Ecole d'Arte, Archipenko's School, until February, 1933. Resigned as president of the Art Students' League. President, Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts. A founder of Washington Square Outdoor Show. December: Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts at the Grand Central Galleries.

1933 - Refused the invitation to Moscow by the American Section of the International Bureau of Revolutionary Artists. Sent letter to sixty museums offering paintings at half price.

1934 - Following George Luks death, elected head of the George Luks School by the students and executors; taught there until May, 1935. Treasurer, Artists and Writers Dinner Club.

1935 - Returned to Art Students' League and continued to teach there until 1937. Sold Pigeons to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as a result of his 1933 offer of paintings at half price. Moved to Hotel Chelsea, 222 West 23rd Street.

1937 - Made 16 etchings to illustrate Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage.

1938 - March: Retrospective exhibition at the Addison Gallery of American Art, Massachusetts. Death of William Glackens.

1939 - Published, in conjunction with Helen Farr, Gist of Art. Painted mural for the Treasury Department Art Program in Bronxville, New York, Post Office.

1940 - Started to build Sinagua, six miles from Santa Fe.

1941 - Testimonial dinner at Petitpas' by the directors of the Society of Independent Artists in celebration of its 25th Anniversary and Sloan's 24th as president. June: One-man exhibition at the Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe.

1942 - Received first prize of $500 for the etching, Fifth Avenue, 1909 in the exhibition called Artists For Victory. Elected to the Academy of Arts and Letters.

1943 - Death of Dolly Sloan on May 4. Convalescence in Santa Fe, fall and winter.

1944 - Married Helen Farr on February 5, a pupil and long time friend of the Sloans. Elected President Santa Fe Painters and Sculptors.

1945 - February: Exhibition of etchings at the Renaissance Society Gallery, University of Chicago, where Sloan delivered the Moody lecture. October: Twenty-two paintings, some etchings and lithographs in the Artists of the Philadelphia Press exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

1946 - July: Retrospective exhibition at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, in honor of his seventy-fifth birthday.

1947 - Resumed writing diaries.

1948 - February: Retrospective exhibition at the Kraushaar Galleries.

1949 - President of New Mexico Alliance for the Arts.

1950 - May: Awarded the Gold Medal for painting by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Last summer spent in Santa Fe.

1951 - Died on September 7, of post-operative complications, in Hanover, New Hampshire.

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SCOPE AND CONTENTS NOTE

The John Sloan Manuscript Collection contains catalog records, consignment books, financial and legal records, clipping files, photographs of paintings and drawings, published illustrations, correspondence with artist friends and others, photographs, published matter about Sloan and related artists, and organizational matter. The following organizations are represented: Art Students' League, Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts, Artist's Equity Association, Hall of Art, Artist's and Writer's Dinner Club, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Letters, American Artists Group, Hudson Guild, League of American Artists, New Society of Artists, Society of Independent Artists, PWA Project, Municipal Art Committee, Armory Show and Macbeth Galleries.

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ORGANIZATION OF THE COLLECTION

Series I. Correspondence, 1881-current
Series II. Biographical & Personal
Series III. Legal & Financial
Series IV. Organizational Records
Series V. Society of Independent Artists
Series VI. Photographs & Photographic Material
Series VII. Printed Matter
Series VIII. Print catalog Raisonné
Series IX. Illustration
Series X. Maratta
Series XI. Catalog Cards
Series XII. Miscellaneous
Series XIII. Art Media
Series XIV. Original artwork
Drawer List

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DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

Series I. Correspondence

Series I, Correspondence, is organized into two sub-series, Original Correspondence and Correspondence Photocopies. Each is arranged chronologically. Correspondence index is arranged alphabetically by sender, 1800s-1951.

Administrative Note: Correspondence located throughout collection are not included in Series I, Correspondence.

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Series II. Biographical & Personal

Administrative Note: The contents of Box 34g are not directly related to the Diaries, however, provenance dictates that these items be catalogued immediately following the diaries. A revised box numbering system would resolve this issue.

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Series III. Legal & Financial

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Series IV. Organizational Records

Series IV. Organizational Records contains articles of incorporation, minutes, treasurers' reports, project reports, membership lists, printed matter, correspondence, newsletters, manuscripts, insurance policies, legal and financial material, clippings, royalty statements, contracts, photographs, and bibliography.

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Series V. Society of Independent Artists

Series V, Society of Independent Artists, was divided into a series separate from Organization Records in Fall 2001 due to the breadth of material.

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Series VI. Photographs

Series VI, Photographs, is organized into twenty-seven sub-series (accession codes) as outlined below.

Photographs: Box 81-116

Photographic material:

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Series VII. Printed Matter

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Series VIII. Print catalog Raisonné

Box 225-230

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Series IX. Illustration

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Series X. Maratta

Box 235-236 Brochures, charts, pigment, color triangles, technical recipes, chromatoscopes, HFS notes, Henri color material

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Series XI. Catalog Cards

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Series XII. Miscellaneous

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Series XIII. Art Media

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Series XIV. Original Artwork

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Drawer List

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