This unglorified image of a New York City woman attending to her laundry with a clothespin in her mouth is one of John Sloan's classic paintings. Sloan, who worked as a newspaper illustrator, joined with several of his journalist-painter colleagues to form The Eight, a group of realist artists who opposed the conservative American art establishment of the early 1900s. They exhibited together only once, in 1908, but their controversial show was considered a landmark expression of artistic freedom. Several of the members, including Sloan and the group's founder, Robert Henri, produced images of ordinary Americans. The revolutionary choice of down-to-earth subject matter inspired the epithet that became their name: the Ashcan School.
Sloan believed that the best way to understand life was through direct observation and by associating with working-class people. His slice-of-life paintings recorded the bustling activity of New York City's Lower East Side with broad, vigorous strokes and a deliberate avoidance of sentimentality. Red Kimono on the Roof may be a scene that Sloan saw from the window of his studio, which would explain its elevated vantage point. The picture's sense of immediacy is enhanced by freely applied brushstrokes with few hard edges. In addition, the strong contrasts between the light and the dark shadows suggest the passage of time. John Sloan taught at the Art Students League in New York City and counted among his students such important future artists as Alexander Calder, David Smith, and Barnett Newman.
What a surprise straight, simple paintings about straight, simple things are to the cultured public!
-Painter Robert Henri, 1908
