Oct 08, 2009 - Sale 2189

Sale 2189 - Lot 43

Price Realized: $ 19,200
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
LOUIS B. SLOAN (1932 - 2008)
Self Portrait.

Oil on canvas, 1956. 1055x750 mm; 41 1/2x29 1/2 inches. Signed in oil, lower right.

Provenance: private collection.

Exhibited: Louis B. Sloan: A Particular Vision, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, PA, December 14, 2008 - March 8, 2009.

This striking self portrait is the first significant painting by this important Philadelphia artist to come to auction. Self Portrait shows the young Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts student standing in a city backyard--a scene very similar to his Back Yards, which was acquired by the Academy a year earlier. Originally encouraged by instructor Julius Bloch to study at the Academy, Sloan won the Philadelphia City Council Scholarship in 1952 and enrolled the following year. Sloan became a leading figure in the Philadelphia art scene for over 50 years, and a faculty member at the Academy from 1962 until 1997. During his career, Sloan received many prestigious awards, including the Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant, the Academy's Jennie Sesan Gold Medal, The Emily Lowe Grant, the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and the James VanDerZee Award from Philadelphia's Brandywine Workshop. Today his paintings are found in the permanent collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Woodmere Art Museum and numerous private collections.