May 11, 2023 - Sale 2636

Sale 2636 - Lot 309

Price Realized: $ 6,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 8,000
JOHN SLOAN
Night Windows.

Etching, 1910. 131x174 mm; 5 1/4x6 7/8 inches, full margins. Fifth state (of 5). Edition of 110 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed, titled and inscribed "100 proofs" in pencil, lower margin, and signed by the printer, Peter Platt, in pencil, lower left. A superb, dark impression with strong contrasts and the artist's tack holes for drying at the extreme sheet edges.

In his diary, Sloan (1871-1951) wrote, "The subject of this plate is one which I have had in mind—night, the roofs back of us—a girl in deshabille at a window and a man on the roof smoking his pipe." It seems that he struggled with the execution of this idea, however; at various points he refers to this plate as "a pretty bad snarl," and "a mess of line." After roughly two years of work, he finally deemed the plate fit for publishing. Morse 152.