Skip to main contentProvenanceThe artist
Margo Pollins Schab, Inc., New York, New York
Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1996
Exhibition HistoryPublished References
John Sloan
(American, 1871–1951)
Dressing by Gaslight
c. 1907
Monotype in brown ink on cream wove paper
Plate: 7 x 5 5/16 in. (17.8 x 13.5 cm)
Sheet: 10 1/8 x 8 5/16 in. (25.7 x 21.1 cm)
Mat: 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
Sheet: 10 1/8 x 8 5/16 in. (25.7 x 21.1 cm)
Mat: 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
Credit LineTerra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection
Object number1996.58
SignedBelow platemark, lower right: John Sloan
InterpretationJohn Sloan's intimate image presents a dark-haired woman, wearing a corset, dressing by the glow of a wall-mounted gas fixture. Bathed in coffee-colored shadows, she is captured in an awkward gesture, with her right arm bent over her head as she dabs her back with a towel supported by her left arm. Her head and elbow are framed in a mirror hanging above a sink with a faucet that appears just to the left of the woman's torso. This print is a quickly made monotype, a kind of print of which only one impression typically is made. After covering a smooth plate with dark ink, Sloan used a brush, blunt tool, or rag to wipe away selected areas of the ink, indicating as highlights the rounded contours of the woman's arms, shoulder, and cheek, and such details as the lamp and faucet and the lace trim on her camisole. Made from a single ink tint, Dressing by Gaslight is an exercise in representing light and form entirely by varying tone and texture, independent of color.
Along with A Band in the Back Yard (TF 1987.30), Dressing by Gaslight is among the earliest monotypes Sloan made, possibly the product of an evening spent in his studio making monotypes with Robert Henri. The two artists were fellow members of a circle of anti-academic artists, later dubbed the Ashcan school, who around this time dedicated their art to contemporary urban experience. Sloan was committed to basing his art on observation of ordinary people's everyday habits and activities, even private and intimate ones, as this print and Turning Out the Light (TF 1995.21) demonstrate. Yet Dressing by Gaslight joins a long artistic tradition of representations of bathers and women privately grooming themselves.
Along with A Band in the Back Yard (TF 1987.30), Dressing by Gaslight is among the earliest monotypes Sloan made, possibly the product of an evening spent in his studio making monotypes with Robert Henri. The two artists were fellow members of a circle of anti-academic artists, later dubbed the Ashcan school, who around this time dedicated their art to contemporary urban experience. Sloan was committed to basing his art on observation of ordinary people's everyday habits and activities, even private and intimate ones, as this print and Turning Out the Light (TF 1995.21) demonstrate. Yet Dressing by Gaslight joins a long artistic tradition of representations of bathers and women privately grooming themselves.
Margo Pollins Schab, Inc., New York, New York
Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1996
Exhibition History
On Process: The American Print, Technique Examined, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 13–March 2, 2001.
L'Héroïque et le quotidien: les artistes américains, 1820–1920 (The Extraordinary and the Everyday: American Perspectives, 1820–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 30, 2001. [exh. cat.]
L'Héroïque et le quotidien: les artistes américains, 1820–1920 (The Extraordinary and the Everyday: American Perspectives, 1820–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 30, 2001. [exh. cat.]
The Painterly Print: Monotypes from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century. (exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980 [for a discussion of Sloan's monotypes].
Moses, Joann. Singular Impressions: The Monotypes in America. (exh. cat. National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution). Washington, D.C.: Published for the National Museum of American Art by Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997. Fig. 70, p. 72.
Moses, Joann. Singular Impressions: The Monotypes in America. (exh. cat. National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution). Washington, D.C.: Published for the National Museum of American Art by Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997. Fig. 70, p. 72.