JOHN SLOAN
Turning Out the Light.
Etching, 1905. 127x178 mm; 5x7 inches, full margins. Edition of 110 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed, titled and inscribed "100 proofs" in pencil, lower margin. From New York City Life. A superb, richly-inked impression with very strong contrasts. Sloan (1871-1951) produced his New York City Life series of ten etchings from 1905-06, recording the lives of the city's tenement dwellers. Sloan found these prints difficult to market to buyers, as they were not accustomed to seeing such honest depictions of everyday life. The current etching was one of the works rejected from an American Watercolor Society exhibition in 1906 for indecency.According to Levin, "Hopper may have first met John Sloan as early as April 1904, just after Sloan's move to New York where he lived in the same building as Robert Henri but certainly by 1906 when Sloan substituted for Henri for one month at the New York School of Art. For Edward Hopper, Sloan represented one artist he could respect who prior to 1916 had worked regularly as a commercial illustrator. Sloan's influence is particularly visible during Hopper's formative years," (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 9). Morse 134.