John Sloan and The Eight

Washington Bridge, New York City, c. 1915-25 Ernest Lawson (1873-1939) Oil on canvas, 24 1/2 x 29 1/2 inches Gift of the Friends of Art, 1964 DAM 1964-2

Ernest Lawson, a native of Canada, studied with American Impressionists John Twachtman and J. Alden Weir and traveled to France, where his acquaintance with the painter Alfred Sisley reinforced a direction toward a personal style derived from Impressionism. In 1898 Lawson moved to Washington Heights, New York, near the sparsely populated farmlands along the Harlem River. The countryside, boathouses, and bridges spanning the river provided subjects for many of Lawson’s paintings. Like the French Impressionist Claude Monet, he often painted several versions of the same scene during different seasons with varying color tonalities.