John Sloan

J. J. Carlee, Leeds, Maine

Robert Carlee, Leeds, Maine (acquired by descent from the above)

Kraushaar Galleries, New York (acquired from the above)

Acquired from the above in 1980 by the present owner

Santa Fe, The Museum of New Mexico, School of American Research, John Sloan, 1942

El Palacio, vol. XLIX, issue 8, August 1942, illustrated on the cover

Thomas Folk, “The Western Paintings of John Sloan,” Art and Antiques, vol. 5, issue 2, March/April 1982, pp. 106-7, illustrated

Rowland Elzea, John Sloan's Oil Paintings: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. II, Cranbury, New Jersey 1991, no. 1095, p. 387, illustrated

Although most frequently associated with the Ashcan school of New York City, John Sloan spent about thirty summers in Santa Fe, New Mexico creating landscape and figural paintings. Shortly following Sloan’s first visit to Santa Fe in 1919, his works became less narrative as the background came to dominate the composition. Sloan was drawn to travel across the country by his distaste for the oversaturation of artists in the northeast and the suggestion of his friend Robert Henri who had returned from Santa Fe in 1918 (David Scott, John Sloan, New York 1975, p. 162). In the South, he took an interest in the separation of form from color which was encouraged by the dramatic desert landscape and Southwest sky (Grant Holcomb III, The Ruth Martin Collection of Paintings by John Sloan, New York 1980, p. 2). Sloan observed, “I have come to a greater emphasis on plastic realization…I have tried using a superimposed linear color texture to add significance. It is not a new technique, having been used in the Pompeian frescoes and by Signorelli” (John Sloan, John Sloan, American Artists group, New York 1945, p.1) Plastic realization is what makes Sloan’s late paintings notable for their depth of color, Sloan believes that this technique “may be of more interest to students than to those who only see subject matter in pictures.” (Sloan, John, John Sloan, American Artists group, New York 1945 p.1) This technique separates the painting of form and color through creating texture with an impasto layer and underpainting.

Crossways, Santa Fe dates from 1940, one year after the release of Sloan’s book, Gist of Art, which documents his current technique and thoughts on fine art. The present work depicts a swooping landscape with shrub-covered mountains, traditional adobe brick structures and small figures who frolic in the grandeur of the desert. By convening in the foreground’s valley in front of all other structures, Sloan’s figures give the illusion of having a vastly expansive landscape behind them. New Mexico was a source of inspiration both culturally and visually for Sloan; both his devotion to perfecting the plastic design technique and his pursuit to accurately capture unique biome shine in the present work. Sloan wrote that he enjoyed painting the southwest because of “the fine geometrical formations and the handsome color. The Pinon trees dot the surface of hills and Mesas with exciting textures. When you see a green tree it is like a lettuce against the earth, a precious growing thing. Because the air is so clear you feel the reality of the things in the distance” (quoted in Lloyd Goodrich, John Sloan, New York 1952, p. 52). Sloan’s time in New Mexico changed his artistic language permanently; his corpus from then on implemented a focus on place and plastic realization rather than the focus on individual figures common among the Ashcan school.