Alternate Views

A Woman's Work

1912

John Sloan

(American, 1871-1951)

America, 20th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 97.2 x 82.2 x 6.4 cm (38 1/4 x 32 3/8 x 2 1/2 in.); Unframed: 80.3 x 65.4 cm (31 5/8 x 25 3/4 in.)

Gift of Amelia Elizabeth White 1964.160

Location

208 American Gilded Age and Realism

Fun Fact

According to John Sloan's diary, this painting was made in March 1912 at his apartment on East 22nd Street, New York.

Description

Trained as a journalist, the young Sloan explored social issues more vigorously than most of the painters of his time, portraying working-class urbanites engaged in ordinary activities. He observed this particular scene through a rear window of his Manhattan apartment. Perched on a narrow fire escape, a woman hangs fresh laundry to dry on clotheslines strung between tenements. As evidenced by the painting, the labors of American women at the turn of the 1900s were most often confined to the domestic realm.

Video

Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed lower right: "John Sloan -"

Provenance

Sold c. 1939-1940 to Amelia White, Santa Fe.

Citations

Sloan, John. Gist of Art . New York: 1944. Mentioned: p. 197-918; Reproduced: p. 229

Sloan, John. John Sloan. New York, NY: American Artists Group, 1945.

Brooks, Van Wyck. John Sloan: A Painter's Life. London, United Kingdom: J.M. Dent, 1955. Reproduced: p. 191

"Year in Review for 1964." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art (December, 1964) Mentioned: p. 264; Reproduced: p. 251, n. 87

Sloan,John. John Sloan's New York Scene from the Diaries, Notes, and Correspondence 1906-1913 ed. Bruce St. John. New York: Harper & Row, 1965. Mentioned: p. 609-610

"Reports of the Departments: Paintings." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art (June, 1965). Mentioned: p. 143-144

Cleveland Museum of Art, Handbook of The Cleveland Museum of Art Cleveland: Press of Western Reserve University, 1966. Reproduced: p. 191 archive.org

Wade,Richard C., Howard B. Wilder, and Louise C. Wade. The American Scene, Life in the City as Seen by John Sloan: A History of the United States. New York, 1966.

"Recent Acquisitions in the American Field." Art in America 54 (May-June, 1966) Reproduced: p. 46

Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, 1969. Reproduced: p. 191 archive.org

Time-Life Editors. American Painting 1900-1970. New York, 1970. Mentioned: p. 12-20, 27; Reproduced: p. 12

St. John,Bruce. John Sloan. New York: Praeger, 1971. Reproduced: n. 39

Adams, Celeste, Rita Myers, and Adele Z. Silver. An Introduction to American Art in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1972. Mentioned: p. 16-17; Reproduced: p. 17

Price, Vincent. The Vincent Price Treasury of American Art. Waukesha, WI: Country Beautiful Corp, 1972. Mentioned: p. 194-195; Reproduced: 195

Holcomb III, Grant. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of John Sloan.(University of Delaware, 1972), PhD dissertation. Mentioned: p. 400; Reproduced: p. 500

"A Check List: American Paintings and Water Colors of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Early Twentieth Centuries in The Cleveland Museum of Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art (January, 1973) Mentioned: p. 33

Sharp Young, Mahonri. American Realists: Homer to Hopper. New York, NY: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1977. Mentioned: p. 161-162; Reproduced: p. 168

Lucie-Smith, Edward, and Celestine Dars. Work and Struggle: The Painter As Witness 1870-1914. New York, NY : Paddington Press; Distributed by Grosset & Dunlap,1977. Mentioned: p. 52-56; Reproduced: n. 198

Johnson, Mark M. "American Landscapes. . .Scenes as Divergent as the Land Itself." Arts and Activities 82, no. 4 (December, 1977) Mentioned: p. 28-33; Reproduced: p. 30, n. 4

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 258 archive.org

Hills, Patricia. "John Sloan's Images of Working Class Women: A Case Study of the Roles and Interrelationships of Politics, Personality, and Patrons in the Development of Sloan's Art, 1905-16." Prospect 5 (October 1980). Mentioned: p. 175; Reproduced: p. 214

Silver, Adele Z. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Guide to the Galleries. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art,1981. Mentioned: p. 80-85; Reproduced: p. 85

Unger, Irwin. These United States, The Question of Our Past. Boston, 1981. Reproduced: p. 596

"In the Background: The Ashcan School." The Great Artists, Their Lives, Works, and Inspiration: Hopper. London: Marshall Cavendish Ltd., 1986. vol. 4. Mentioned: p. 2810-2813; Reproduced: p. 2812

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 144

Elzea, Rowland. John Sloan's Oil Paintings: A Catalogue Raisonné. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1991. Mentioned: p. 19-24, 115-116; Reproduced: p. 116, n. 192

Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in The Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. illus. p. 224. Reproduced: p. 224

Garraty, John A. Story of America. 1994.

Amon Carter Museum. "American Impressionists, American Realists: In Search of the New". Educational video (April 1994).

Updike, John "Beyond the Picturesque," New York Times. June 23,1994. Mentioned: p. 21, 23

Loughery, John. John Sloan: Painter and Rebel. New York: H. Holt, 1995. Mentioned: p. 347-349

Elements of Literature, Grade 9. New York, 2000. Mentioned: p. T202-T203; Reproduced: p. T203

Kramer, Karen and Alexandra Lerman."The Ballad of Greenwich Village."(New York, 2003?) independent documentary.

Curry, David Park. James Mcneill Whistler: Uneasy Pieces. Richmond, VA: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in association with Quantuck Lane Press, 2004. Mentioned: p. 68-113; Reproduced: p. 86, n. 3.25

Updike, John. Still Looking: Essays on American Art. New York: Knopf, 2005. Mentioned: p. 110,118; Reproduced: p. 111

Coyle, Heather Campbell and Joyce K. Schiller. John Sloan's New York. Wilmington, DE: Delaware Art Museum, 2007. Reproduced: p. 92, n. 94

Pohl, Frances K. Framing America: A Social History of American Art . New York, Thames and Hudson, 2008. Mentioned: p. 336; Reproduced: p. 336, n. 6.19

Adams, Henry. What's American about American Art? A Gallery Tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008. Mentioned: p. 111; Reproduced: p. 110

Dearinger, David B. George Deem: The Art of Art History. Published in conjunction with the exhibition "George Deem: The Art of Art History" shown 11 April through 1 Sept 2012 at The Boston Athenaeum. Boston: The Boston Athenaeum, 2012. Reproduced: p. 33

Litt, Steven. "Closeup." Plain Dealer, September 23, 2012. Mentioned: p. E6

Roehrl, Boris. World History of Realism in Visual Arts, 1830-1990 Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2013. Mentioned: p. 131-132; Reproduced: p. 132

Friese-Oertmann, Sabine. Arbeiter in Malerei und Fotografie des 19. Jahrhunderts: Deutschland, Großbritannien, USA. Berlin: Reimer, 2017. Reproduced: p. 200, Abb. 135

Slayton, Robert A. Beauty in the City:The Ashcan School. Albany : Excelsior Editions, State University of New York Press, 2017. Reproduced: p.113, no. 7.8 Mentioned: 112

Exhibition history

New York, MacDowell Club, Group Exhibition (17-29 April1913); see Elzea, pp. 116 and 449.

New York, Kraushaar Galleries, Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Etchings by John Sloan (19 March-7 April 1917); no. 11.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Art Institute, Exhibition of Paintings by George Luks, Augustus Vincent Tack and John Sloan (March, 1918)

New York, Whitney Studio Club, Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by Members of the Club (20 March-20 April 1921)

New York, Greenwich House, Sculpture, Painting, and Crafts by Greenwich Village Artists (24 April-2 May 1922); no. 50; see Elzea's publication.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 120th Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (8 February-29 March 1925); no. 236.

Providence, Rhode Island School of Design, Annual Exhibition of Recent American Paintings (13 October-9 November 1925); no. 23.

New York, Wanamaker Galleries, John Sloan: Paintings, Etchings, and Drawings (4 November-? December 1939); traveled to Philadelphia, Wanamaker Galleries (*-29 January 1939); no. 41.

New York, Park Avenue Gallery, Then and Now (7-19 October 1940); see Elzea's publication.

Santa Fe, Martha White Memorial Gallery, John Sloan (15-29 August 1942); see Elzea's publication.

Santa Fe, Museum of New Mexico, 30th Annual Exhibtion: Painters and Scultpors of the Southwest (1 August-15 September 1943), cat. no. 173.

Hanover, NH, Hood Museum of Art, Darthmouth College, John Sloan: Paintings, Prints, Drawings (2 October 1981-3 January 1982); traveled to Lincoln, Mass, Decordova and Dana Museum and Park (23 January-7 March 1982); to Kalamazoo, MI, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (18 March-2 May 1982); to Madison, WI, Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin (12 June-1 August 1982); to Dayton, Dayton Art Institute (11 September-24 October 1982); to Rochester, Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester (6 November 1982-2 January 1983), cat. no. 15, pp. 17-20, 22, 52-53, illus. p. 53.

Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, American Cities: The Artist's View (17 October 1989-7 January 1990)

Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, America in Art: Fifty Great Paintings Celebrating Fifty Years (6 June-11 August 1991) pp. 8-11, 98-99, illus. p. 99, no cat. no.

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915 (2 May-24 July 1994); to Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (6 March-14 May 1995); pp. 286-291, illus. fig. no. 294.

Year in Review (1964). The Cleveland Museum of Art (January 1-31, 1965).

American Cities: The Artist's View. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 17, 1989-January 7, 1990).

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{{cite web|title=A Woman's Work|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1964.160|author=John Sloan|year=1912|access-date=23 October 2019|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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A Woman's Work

A Woman's Work

John Sloan

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