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.

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: 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.

Collections: Library of Congress (Pennell Fund purchase); Metropolitan Museum of Art; NYPL; Smithsonian American Art Museum.

SOLD

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.

Image size 5 1/8 x 6 3/4 inches (130 x 171 mm); sheet size 9 5/8 x 12 1/2 inches (232 x 318 mm).

A fine, rich impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (2 1/4 to 2 7/8 inches), in excellent condition. Printed by Peter Platt, the printer's tack holes at the sheet edges.

Reproduced: Prints and Their Creators, A World History, Carl Zigrosser, Crown Publishers Inc., 1974; Whistler to Weidenaar: American Prints 1870-1950, Museum of Art, RISD, 1987.

Exhibited: the Armory Show, New York, 1913.

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

SOLD

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 1/8 x 10 7/8 inches (206 x 276 mm).

A fine, rich impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 5/8 to 2 5/8 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

$3000.

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 3/4 inches (197 x 248 mm); sheet size 12 5/8 x 14 inches (321 x 356 mm).

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

This impression printed by Peter Platt who printed 25 impressions. Ernest Roth printed 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

This print was included in the MoMA 1976 exhibition "Cubism and It's Affinities", curated by William S. Lieberman.

Collections: Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA.

SOLD

Hell Hole- 1917, Etching and Aquatint.

Morse 186. Edition 100 (110 printed); 2nd state of 2. Signed, titled and annotated 100 proofs in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower right.

Image size 7 3/8 x 9 3/8 inches (187 x 238 mm); sheet size 11 5/8 x 15 1/8 inches (295 x 384 mm).

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

“The back room of Wallace’s at Sixth Avenue and West Fourth Street was a gathering place for artists, writers, and bohemians of Greenwich Village. The character in the upper right hand corner of the plate is Eugene O’Neill. Strongly etched lines are reinforced by aquatint tones.” -John Sloan

Exhibited and Reproduced: The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock, Stephen Coppel, The British Museum, 2008, catalogue p.49.

Collection: British Museum, Delaware Art Museum, LC purchase, Pennell Fund, Phillips Collection.

$4800.

Snowstorm in the Village- 1920, Etching.

Morse 216. Edition 100 (3rd state of 3). Signed, titled and annotated 100 proofs in pencil.

Image size 7 x 5 inches (178 x 127 mm); sheet size 11 5/8 x 8 1/8 inches (295 x 206 mm).

A fine impression, on antique cream laid paper, with full margins (1 1/2 to 2 3/8 inches); in excellent condition.

$11,500.

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.

Bonfire= 1920, Etching

Morse 198. Edition 100. Signed, titled and annotated 100 proofs in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower left.

Image size 5 x 7 1/4 inches (127 x 184 mm); sheet size 7 7/8 x 11 1/4 inches (200 x 286 mm).

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

"This fire frolic in a vacant lot has resulted in a plate with fine qualities of light and movement " –Dart 61.

$2200.

Frankie and Johnnie (also HIM)= 1928, Etching

Morse 236. Edition 100, only 50 printed. Signed and inscribed 100 proofs in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower left; annotated "Frankie and Johnnie" from "HIM", lower right.

Image size 4 7/8 x 7 7/8 inches (124 x 200 mm); sheet size 8 5/8 x 12 1/2 inches (219 x 318 mm).

A fine impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/2 to 2 1/4 inches); the artist's tack holes at the sheet edges, in excellent condition. Printed by Peter Platt.

"A small chorus singing 'Frankie and Johnnie' crowds the tiny stage of the Provincetown Players Theatre in MacDougall Street. An episode from E.E. Cummings' intelligent and entertaining production, 'HIM'." –John Sloan.

$1800.

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.

Half Nude on Elbow - 1931, Etching and Engraving.

Morse 250. Edition 100, only 75 printed. Signed, titled and annotated 100 proofs in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower right.

Image size 3 x 4 7/8 inches (76 x 124 mm); sheet size 7 7/8 x 8 1/4 inches (200 x 210 mm).

A fine impression, on cream laid paper, with full margins (1 5/8 to 2 1/2 inches), in excellent condition.

Printed by Peter Platt (25 impressions) and Ernest Roth (50 impressions).

Collection:Library of Congress.

SOLD

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).

Collections: Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

SOLD

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

Their Appointed Rounds also Postman - 1938, Etching and Mezzotint.

Morse 304. Edition 100, only 75 printed. Signed, titled and annotated Greetings 1939 in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower left.

Image size 5 7/16 x 7 inches (138 x 178 mm); sheet size 8 x 10 inches (203 x 254 mm).

A fine impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches), in excellent condition. This impression from the first printing of 50 by Charles S. White.

As evidenced by the inscription, Sloan used the print as a Christmas greeting. The title is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the well-known quotation from Herodotus translated as: "Neither snow nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." One must assume that the artist, like most of us, had contrary experiences with his mail delivery.

Collections: Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

SOLD