Feb 16, 2023 - Sale 2626

Sale 2626 - Lot 70

Unsold
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500

JOHN SLOAN (1871-1951)


Isaac L. Rice, Esq.
Etching. 357x279 mm; 14x11 inches, full margins. Third state (of 3). Edition of only 25 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed and inscribed "100 proofs" in pencil, lower margin. 1915.

A superb impression of this large, scarce etching.

A New York attorney specializing in corporate law and patents, Rice (1850-1915) was also a renowned chess player. He sponsored chess tournaments and invented a chess move known as the "Rice Gambit." Morse 178.

The WPA gave opportunities and financial help to many artists who were struggling during the Depression. Sloan, already an established artist and teacher at the Art Students League (who taught many artists who particapted in the WPA programs), did not fit that profile, but he did participate in the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, which hired well-known artists for its projects. He painted the mural The Arrival of the First Mail in Bronxville in 1846 for the post office in Bronxville, New York. He also created two paintings for the WPA, one The Wigwam, Old Tammany Hall, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the other Fourteenth Street at Sixth Avenue, originally hung the office of U.S. Senator Royal Copeland and now is exhibited at the Detroit Insitute of Arts.