Dolly

In John Sloan's intimate portrait, his first wife, known as Dolly, gazes out as if at her husband. Although he considered it an imperfect likeness, Sloan felt his print successfully captured his wife's large eyes, pert nose, and slightly drooping mouth. With an agile line, the artist articulated the lively tufts of his wife's hair and her distinctive facial features. Patches of diagonal lines model her unevenly lit face, with the white of the untouched paper serving as highlights on her rounded left cheek and neck. Made after twenty-eight years of marriage, Sloan's frank, unidealized portrayal of Dolly conveys her strength of character and a hint of melancholy, in which it recalls another close-up portrait of an artist's wife, William Merritt Chase's Portrait of Alice Gerson (TF 1992.11).

In 1898, when Sloan was working as a newspaper illustrator, he met Anna Maria (Dolly) Wall, who had already experienced a hefty dose of hardship and her first battles with alcoholism. Around the same time, Sloan was encouraged by the artist Robert Henri, a friend and mentor, to begin painting. Although poorly educated, Dolly understood Sloan's artistic aspirations. They married in 1901. Sloan biographer Van Wyck Brooks described her as "tiny as a hummingbird, four feet nine inches tall…She was a tempestuous little soul, mercurial, unstable, but as bold as a jay in defense of her affections and beliefs." Devoted to each other, despite Dolly's emotional struggles, the Sloans remained together until her death at the age of sixty-six, in May 1943. In 1929, when he executed this print, Sloan was a well-established artist noted for his mastery of etching and proficiency in painting, including portraiture. He featured Dolly in other, earlier prints, such as Copyist at the Metropolitan Museum (TF 1995.45).

A Place on the Avenue: Terra Museum of American Art Celebrates 15 Years in Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 16, 2002–February 16, 2003.

Morse, Peter. John Sloan's Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Etchings, Lithographs, and Posters. New Haven, Connecticut and London, England: Yale University Press, 1969. No. 238, p. 263.