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The title is poignant. Sloan completed the print just months after Linda Henri’s death at the age of thirty. [1] The image is meant to capture the warmth of evenings spent together, in each other’s homes, engaged in pleasurable activities. The etching shows the two artists seated across the table from each other, sketching and smoking. Henri, seated in a comfortable arm chair, sports his characteristic bushy mustache. Sloan is thin and bespectacled, with a lock of hair falling across his forehead. Dolly, seated at back between the two men, gazes directly out at the viewer. She is petite and pretty, with a round face and softly curling tendrils of hair. Linda Henri, prominently placed in the foreground, is entertaining the group by reading aloud. She is presented in profile, her features delicate and her hair and dress elegant. Something about her thin frame hints at the ill health she had suffered for years. The scene is rounded out by touching, homey details: a basket of fruit on the table, a box of candy, a deck of cards, and books and sketches on the shelf at left. The mood is one of quiet intimacy. In fact, Sloan gave the etching the alternate title Family Group. For an artist who had troubled relationships with his own family, this adopted family was particularly meaningful.
Art historian Alexis L. Boylan points out that Sloan was particularly invested in capturing the likenesses accurately. She notes that Sloan showed the etching to Henri as he worked on it, at one point even entreating his friend to aid him in its composition: “Henri made a sketch to help me out in my portrait which I’m attempting with much disaster in the ‘Family’ group etching.” [2] The fact that the two friends collaborated on the project to memorialize their lost loved one adds an extra note of poignancy to the work.
Notes:
[1] John Loughery, John Sloan: Painter and Rebel (New York: H. Holt, 1995), 90.
[2] Sloan, quoted in Alexis L. Boylan, “Best Friends Forever? John Sloan, Robert Henri, and the Problem of Memory,” in Heather Campbell Coyle and Joyce K. Schiller, John Sloan’s New York (Wilmington, DE: Delaware Art Museum in association with Yale University Press, 2007), 197.
ProvenanceEstate of Helen Farr Sloan (1911-2005)
To 2009
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE, acquired from the estate of Helen Farr Sloan (1911-2005)
From 2009
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by the Delaware Art Museum on September 17th, 2009
Notes:
[1] Deed of Gift, object file.
[2] See note 1.
[3] Accession Record and Deed of Gift, object file.
Exhibition History2014-2015
Love & Loss
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (10/11/2014-12/13/2015)
2020
Private Life: Domestic and Interior Spaces in 20th Century Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (2/4/2020-9/27/2020)
Published References
DepartmentAmerican Art
Memory
Artist
John Sloan
(1871 - 1951)
Date1906
Mediumetching
DimensionsPaper (irregular): 12 3/4 x 14 3/16 in. (32.4 x 36 cm)
Image: 7 3/8 x 8 7/8 in. (18.7 x 22.5 cm)
Frame: 18 3/4 x 20 in. (47.6 x 50.8 cm)
SignedJohn Sloan
Credit LineGift of the Estate of Helen Farr Sloan, Courtesy of the Delaware Art Museum
Copyright© 2021 Delaware Art Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Object number2009.2.1
DescriptionAfter moving to New York in 1904, John and Dolly Sloan quickly renewed the friendships of other Philadelphia artists who had made the move earlier. Chief among those friends were Robert and Linda Henri. Sloan and Henri were in fact more than friends. They were mutual sources of inspiration, artistic collaborators, fellow teachers, and prolific writers whose years-long correspondence with each other was lively and revealing. This etching, Memory, 1906, demonstrates palpably how close the two couples were.The title is poignant. Sloan completed the print just months after Linda Henri’s death at the age of thirty. [1] The image is meant to capture the warmth of evenings spent together, in each other’s homes, engaged in pleasurable activities. The etching shows the two artists seated across the table from each other, sketching and smoking. Henri, seated in a comfortable arm chair, sports his characteristic bushy mustache. Sloan is thin and bespectacled, with a lock of hair falling across his forehead. Dolly, seated at back between the two men, gazes directly out at the viewer. She is petite and pretty, with a round face and softly curling tendrils of hair. Linda Henri, prominently placed in the foreground, is entertaining the group by reading aloud. She is presented in profile, her features delicate and her hair and dress elegant. Something about her thin frame hints at the ill health she had suffered for years. The scene is rounded out by touching, homey details: a basket of fruit on the table, a box of candy, a deck of cards, and books and sketches on the shelf at left. The mood is one of quiet intimacy. In fact, Sloan gave the etching the alternate title Family Group. For an artist who had troubled relationships with his own family, this adopted family was particularly meaningful.
Art historian Alexis L. Boylan points out that Sloan was particularly invested in capturing the likenesses accurately. She notes that Sloan showed the etching to Henri as he worked on it, at one point even entreating his friend to aid him in its composition: “Henri made a sketch to help me out in my portrait which I’m attempting with much disaster in the ‘Family’ group etching.” [2] The fact that the two friends collaborated on the project to memorialize their lost loved one adds an extra note of poignancy to the work.
Notes:
[1] John Loughery, John Sloan: Painter and Rebel (New York: H. Holt, 1995), 90.
[2] Sloan, quoted in Alexis L. Boylan, “Best Friends Forever? John Sloan, Robert Henri, and the Problem of Memory,” in Heather Campbell Coyle and Joyce K. Schiller, John Sloan’s New York (Wilmington, DE: Delaware Art Museum in association with Yale University Press, 2007), 197.
ProvenanceEstate of Helen Farr Sloan (1911-2005)
To 2009
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE, acquired from the estate of Helen Farr Sloan (1911-2005)
From 2009
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by the Delaware Art Museum on September 17th, 2009
Notes:
[1] Deed of Gift, object file.
[2] See note 1.
[3] Accession Record and Deed of Gift, object file.
Exhibition History2014-2015
Love & Loss
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (10/11/2014-12/13/2015)
2020
Private Life: Domestic and Interior Spaces in 20th Century Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (2/4/2020-9/27/2020)
Published References
Status
Not on viewCollections