Of Human Bondage, Chapter 47
1937
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View on museum website →Medium
etching in black on wove paper
Dimensions
plate: 14.92 × 10 cm (5 7/8 × 3 15/16 in.) sheet: 29.05 × 23.5 cm (11 7/16 × 9 1/4 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of Olga Hirshhorn)
Accession Number
2015.19.3427
Art Historical Context
John Sloan's etching *Of Human Bondage Chapter 47* (1937) captures a poignant moment from Somerset Maugham's classic novel, reflecting the artist's deep engagement with literature and human emotion. As a key figure in the Ashcan School group of early 20th-century Americanists known for their unflinching portrayal of urban—Sloan brought his keen eye for everyday drama to this intimate print. Created during the Great Depression, exemplifies his shift toward illustrative printmaking, blending narrative storytelling with social observation in a compact format (plate: 14.92 × 10 cm). Etching in bl...
About the Artist
John Sloan
John French Sloan was born on August 2, 1871, in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Philadelphia, where he taught himself to draw largely through self-study and reproductions before taking evening classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Thomas Anshutz around 1892. That same year he met the painter Robert Henri, who became his closest friend and most influential mentor, enc...