born Aug. 2, 1871, Lock Haven, Pa., U.S.
died Sept. 7, 1951, Hanover, N.H.
U.S. artist.
He worked as a commercial newspaper artist in Philadelphia, where he studied with Robert Henri . He followed Henri to New York City, where in 1908 with six others they exhibited as The Eight . Sloan's realistic urban paintings gave rise to the epithet Ash Can school . Works such as Sunday, Women Drying Their Hair (1912) and Backyards, Greenwich Village (1914) are sympathetic portrayals of working men and women; occasionally he evoked a mood of romantic melancholy.