Sloan, John
- Janice Marie Coco
Extract
Sloan, John (02 August 1871–07 September 1951), realist painter and printmaker, was born John French Sloan in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, the son of James Dixon Sloan, an occasional salesman, and Henrietta Ireland, an English teacher at a local girls’ school. He grew up in a modest home with his two sisters Elizabeth and Marianna, the latter of whom also became an artist. His well-educated maternal extended family provided the children with opportunities to develop their intellectual and artistic interests. Mrs. Sloan shouldered the responsibility of raising the children during her husband’s long absences owing to his job as a traveling salesman, teaching them to read even before they began their formal education. As a child Sloan became familiar with the works of William Hogarth, Thomas Rowlandson, and many other artists in the library of his great-uncle, the inventor Alexander Priestley....
