Fifth Avenue Critics - 1905, Etching

Morse 128. Edition 100. Signed and titled in pencil. Inscribed 100 proofs in the bottom center margin and #14 in the bottom left sheet corner.

Image size 4 9/16 x 6 3/4 inches (116 x 171 mm); sheet size 9 11/16 x 12 9/16 inches(245 x 320 mm).

A superb, early impression, with rich burr, on Van Gelder Zonen cream laid paper; full margins (2 7/16 to 2 7/8 inches). The printer's tack holes in the sheet edges, in excellent condition.

Ex collection Lynn E. Prasse, former curator of Prints and Drawings at the Cleveland Museum of Art, with her initials in pencil in the top right sheet corner, recto, and her 2 collection stamps, verso.

“These two fashionable ladies used to drive up and down Fifth Avenue everyday.... about four o’clock of an afternoon, showing themselves and criticizing others” –John Sloan (1946).

$4400.

Man Monkey - 1905, Etching

Morse 130. Edition 100. Signed and titled in pencil. Inscribed 100 proof.

Image size 4 7/8 x 6 7/8 inches (124 x 175 mm), sheet size 9 11/16 x 12 3/8 inches (246 x 315 mm).

A fine, rich impression, with full margins (2 3/8 to 2 7/8 inches) on cream wove paper. The printer's tack holes in the sheet edges, in excellent condition.

“In the side streets of Chelsea and Greenwich Village districts, the one man band with hand organ accompanist furnished free entertainment to those who dropped no pennies. He worried the horse-drawn traffic of the time, but before many years the automobile and motor truck cleared him from the streets” –John Sloan (1946).

$2600.

Roofs, Summer Night - 1906, Etching

Morse 137. Edition 100, 110 printed. Signed, titled and annotated 100 proofs in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower left. Annotated Ernest Roth imp., in the bottom left sheet edge. Numbered 15 in the bottom center sheet edge.

Image size 5 1/4 x 7 inches (133 x 178 mm); sheet size 9 1/8 x 12 inches (232 x 305 mm).

A superb, richly inked impression, with selectively wiped platetone, on cream laid paper; full margins (1 7/8 to 2 1/2 inches), in excellent condition.

From Sloan's "New York City Life" series. "I have always liked to watch the people in the summer, especially the way they live on the roofs. For many years I have not seen the summer life of the city, which has perhaps been better for my health than my production of city life etchings...." –Dart 38.

SOLD

Copyist at the Metropolitan Museum - 1908, Etching

Morse 148. Edition Sloan 100, (75 printed); Weyhe 115. Signed in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, bottom center.

Image size 7 3/8 x 8 7/8 inches (187 x 225 mm); sheet size 9 3/8 x 11 inches (238 x 279 mm).

A superb impression, in warm black ink, on cream wove Kitakata Japan paper, with margins (1 to 1 1/4 inches), in excellent condition.

An impression from the Weyhe edition. The two figures in the left foreground are John Sloan and his wife Dolly.

“I remember having trouble with an attempt at likenesses of myself and Dolly.... Why should an artist be so critical in such an unimportant matter?” –John Sloan (1946)

Reproduced in American Master Prints from the Betty and Douglas Duffy Collection, The Trust for Museum Exhibitions, Washington, D.C., 1987. Collections: LC Purchase, Pennell Fund, NYPL.

$5000.

Night Windows - 1910, Etching

Morse 152. Edition 100 (110 printed). Signed, titled, and annotated 100 proofs in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower left. Annotated to my friend Toshi Shimizu, N.Y.C. 1923 beneath the artist’s signature; and JS/5, in the artist’s hand, bottom left sheet corner.

Image size 5 1/8 x 6 3/4 inches (130 x 171 mm); sheet size 9 5/8 x 12 1/8 inches (232 x 305 mm).

A fine, crisp impression with all the detail printing clearly, on cream laid paper; full margins (2 to 2 1/4 inches), in excellent condition. One of only a few impressions printed by the artist.

Exhibited in the Armory Show, New York, 1913.

Collections: The Phillips Collection, National Gallery of Art, Delaware Art Museum, The Library of Congress.

SOLD

Mosaic- 1917, Etching and aquatint

Morse 185. Edition 100, only 35 printed. Signed and inscribed 100 proofs in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower right; titled, lower left.

Image size 7 3/4 x 9 7/8 inches (197 x 251 mm); sheet size 12 5/8 x 14 inches (321 x 356 mm).

A fine impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (2 to 2 1/2 inches); the artist’s tack holes at the sheet edges, in excellent condition. Scarce.

Printed by Peter Platt (25 impressions) and Ernest Roth (10 impressions).

“The plate is a satire on abstract art, and implies that followers of this trend are obeying the Mosaic Law: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.” –John Sloan

$5200.

Arch Conspirators - 1917, Etching

Morse 183. Edition 100. Signed, titled and annotated 100 proofs in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower left.

Image size 4 1/4 x 5 7/8 inches (108 x 149 mm); sheet size 8 3/16 x 10 1/8 inches (208 x 257 mm).

A fine, crisp impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (2 to 2 1/8 inches), in excellent condition.

Printed by Ernest Roth.

"A mid-winter party on the roof of Washington Square Arch. Among those present: Marcel Duchamp, Charles Ellis (actor), John Sloan, and Gertrude Drick (poet), instigator of the affair. A document was drawn up to establish the secession of Greenwich Village from the United States.... The door of the Arch stairway has since been kept locked" (Dart 57). Another article about the incident, "Arch Conspirators" by Margaret Christie (New York Tribune, Dec. 30, 1923), tells essentially the same story. It quotes Sloan at length in the author's words and reproduces the 1st state of this etching. –Morse, p. 209.

SOLD

The Movey Troupe - 1920, Etching

Morse 196. Edition 100, 50 printed. Signed, titled and annotated 100 proofs in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower right and titled, lower left.

Image size 5 1/4 x 7 7/8 inches (133 x 181 mm); sheet size 9 7/8 x 12 3/4 inches (251 x 324 mm).

A fine, crisp impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (2 3/8 to 3 inches). Original tack holes in the sheet edges, in excellent condition. Printed by Peter Platt.

"Director, leading man, leading lady, and camera man have made use of one of the picturesque backgrounds to be found in Greenwich Village at that time" (John Sloan 1945).

$2200.

Fourteenth Street the Wigwam (Tammany Hall) - 1928, Etching

Morse 235. Edition 100, 110 printed. Signed, titled and annotated 100 proofs in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower left.

Image size 9 11/16 x 6 7/8 inches (246 x 175 mm); sheet size 18 x 12 5/8 inches (457 x 321 mm).

A superb, finely detailed impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (2 3/4 to 4 1/4 inches), the printer's tack holes in the sheet edges, in excellent condition. Printed by Peter Platt.

"Old Tammany Hall, the headquarters of the bosses of New York City, has ceased to exist. It lurked, menacing, in dingy red brick, across the way from the tawdry amusements of East Fourteenth Street. This plate was made in 1928 after the building had been torn down. My memory and a photo of a 1911 painting that had been burned furnished material for this new composition. My painting of 1934 now in the Metropolitan Museum was based on the etching." –John Sloan

Illustrated in American Prize Prints of the 20th Century, Albert Reese, American Artist's Group, Inc., New York, 1949.

Selected for 'Fifty Prints of the Year', 1929.

$5000.

Nude and Halo - 1931, Etching

Morse 258. Edition 100, only 45 printed. Signed, titled and annotated 100 proofs in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower left.

Image size 4 7/8 x 4 13/16 inches (98 x 122 mm); sheet size 7 1/8 x 7 11/16 inches (181 x 195 mm).

A fine impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/4 to 1 7/8 inches), in excellent condition.

“I think we can all agree that this lacks the voluptuous charm of a Boucher or Fragonard. ‘Tis well” –John Sloan (1946).

$950.

Nude and Bowl of Fruit - 1931, Etching and engraving

Morse 259. Edition 100, only 50 printed. Signed, titled and annotated 100 proofs in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower left.

Image size 5 1/16 x 10 5/8 inches (129 x 270 mm); sheet size 8 7/8 x 13 7/8 inches (225 x 352 mm).

A superb, crisp impression, in dark brown ink, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/2 to 2 inches). Original tack holes in the sheet edges, in excellent condition.

“The most appreciative remark I have ever heard made about this print was: ‘She looks like metal.’ My liking for this expression indicates the fact that I am not interested in the delicate beauty of human flesh. Worthwhile sculpture has no such sensuous interest” –John Sloan (1946).

$2200.

Nude at Piano - 1933, Etching

Morse 265. Edition 100, only 85 printed. Signed, titled and annotated 100 proofs in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower right.

Image size 6 7/8 x 5 3/8 inches (175 x 137 mm); sheet size 13 1/4 x 8 3/8 inches (336 x 213 mm).

A fine, clean impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/2 to 4 inches), in excellent condition.

“A strong relationship between this etching and the painting of Renoir is to me quite noticeable. My own best results in painting of the nude are made with the same graphic intent” –John Sloan (1946).

$1900.

Nude and Arch - 1933, Etching

Morse 267. Edition 100, only 85 printed. Signed, titled Nude and Washington Arch and annotated 100 proofs in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower right.

Image size 6 7/8 x 5 3/8 inches (175 x 137 mm); sheet size 11 x 8 5/8 inches (279 x 219 mm).

A superb, crisp impression, in dark brown ink, on antique pale grey-green laid paper, with full margins (1 1/2 to 2 1/8 inches), in excellent condition.

“For about ten years [1927-35] my studio overlooked Washington Square, in a house remodelled by George Inness, Jr., son of the great landscape painter” –John Sloan (1945).

SOLD