City from the Palisades
John SLOAN
(American, 1871-1951)
City from the Palisades
Date1908
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionsoverall: 26 1/8 × 32 1/8 in. (66.4 × 81.6 cm)
frame: 34 1/8 × 40 1/8 × 2 7/8 in. (86.7 × 101.9 × 7.3 cm)
weight: 18 lb. (8.2 kg)
ClassificationPAINTINGS
Credit LineSBMA, Gift of Mrs. Sterling Morton to the Preston Morton Collection
Object number1960.82
Subject(s)
- landscape
- river
Collection
- 20th century American
- American
Sub-Collection(s)
- American Realism (Ashcan School)
- American
On View
Not on viewCollections
Label TextAn acolyte of Robert Henri, Sloan produced gritty pictures of the pulsing life he witnessed in New York, consistent with the urban realism of the Ashcan school. However, he was also a devoted landscape painter, as this early example attests. In the summer of 1908, Sloan visited friends in Coytesville, NJ, across the Hudson River. He immediately set to painting what he described as “an apron of ground” from the top of the Palisades, “looking through an opening among the trees at a glimpse of New York City to the south.” The gestural brushwork and summary description caused this painting to be rejected by the conservative jury of the National Academy of Design. But its rejection, along with other works produced by Henri and his followers, resulted in the establishment of alternative exhibitions, such as the 1908 show of “The Eight” and the 1913 Armory Show.
