Provenance

Helen Farr Sloan

American, 1911 - 2005

Explore Selected Works

From a high vantage point, we look across and down at a nighttime cityscape of buildings and an elevated train in this horizontal painting. Muted tones of brick red, mustard yellow, plum purple, and avocado green dominate the buildings in the scene. Shadowy buildings of various heights fill the left side closest to us. We look down onto most of their roofs, and a building on the far left at about our eye level is topped by a water tower. The red-brick and muted green facades of two buildings facing us are illuminated by a harsh light from below, but our view is blocked by a dark rooftop closer to us. A sign on one of the lit buildings reads “MOONSHINE.” A dark brown train on an elevated rail line snakes from beyond these buildings to curve toward us in the center of the composition. Two cars drive under or alongside the rail line, and indistinct forms on a corner between them suggest people. To the right of the train stands a twelve-story triangular building that reaches of the top edge of the canvas. The narrow side facing us is only slightly wider than a single window. From there, the left and right sides of the building flare out to create a triangular footprint. Some windows are lit, and some are dark. Beyond these buildings, more muted red, yellow, and green buildings in the middle distance are also lit from below. Tiny windows of three more high-rise buildings gleam in the distance on the horizon, which comes about three-quarters of the way up the composition. Pale, rose-pink buildings are piled high in the deep distance in the upper left. They shimmer against the cloud-filled, plum-purple and mauve-pink sky. The artist signed the lower left, “John Sloan.”
John Sloan, The City from Greenwich Village, 1922, oil on canvas, Gift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1970.1.1

The City from Greenwich Village

John Sloan · 1922 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.1.1

John Sloan, The City from Greenwich Village, c. 1922, graphite, Gift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1971.54.2

The City from Greenwich Village

John Sloan · c. 1922 · graphite ·  Accession ID  1971.54.2

John Sloan, The City from Greenwich Village, c. 1922, graphite on tracing paper, Gift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1971.54.1

The City from Greenwich Village

John Sloan · c. 1922 · graphite on tracing paper ·  Accession ID  1971.54.1

John Sloan, Study for "The City from Greenwich Village," II, c. 1922, graphite, Gift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1970.22.2

Study for "The City from Greenwich Village," II

John Sloan · c. 1922 · graphite ·  Accession ID  1970.22.2

John Sloan, Study for "The City from Greenwich Village," I, c. 1922, graphite on tracing paper, Gift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1970.22.1

Study for "The City from Greenwich Village," I

John Sloan · c. 1922 · graphite on tracing paper ·  Accession ID  1970.22.1

John Sloan, Study for "The City from Greenwich Village," III, c. 1922, red colored pencil with touches of graphite, Gift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1970.22.3

Study for "The City from Greenwich Village," III

John Sloan · c. 1922 · red colored pencil with touches of graphite ·  Accession ID  1970.22.3