The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

The Theater

The Theater

1909
(American, 1871–1951)
Platemark: 19.1 x 22.8 cm (7 1/2 x 9 in.); Sheet: 27.3 x 27 cm (10 3/4 x 10 5/8 in.)
© Delaware Art Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Catalogue raisonné: not in Morse
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

To make this monotype, John Sloan covered a printing plate with ink and wiped it away in areas to create an image, a technique called "dark-field manner."

Description

The opera houses, symphony halls, and theaters constructed in the first quarter of the 1900s in America’s cities accommodated increasingly large audiences and constituted a new realm of “high” culture. This print records John Sloan’s first experience with opera: likely that of Tannhäuser or Louise, both of which he saw with his wife, Dolly, in February 1909. To make this monotype—a unique image printed from a design made on a printing plate—Sloan manipulated and wiped black and green ink to evoke the effects of artificial lighting on a darkened interior, focusing more attention on the crowd than on the performance itself.
  • ?-1961
    Mr. and Mrs. Ralph L. Wilson, Canton, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    August 19, 1961
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 357
  • Ashcan School Prints and the American City, 1900-1940. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 18-December 26, 2021).
    Monotypes: Painterly Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (May 31-October 11, 2015).
    On the Edge of Your Seat: Popular Theatre and Film in Early 20th-century American Art. Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum (organizer) (April 27-August 4, 2002); Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Museum of American Art, Philadelphia, PA (February 8-April 20, 2003).
    Metropolitan Lives: The Ashcan Artists and Their New York, 1897-1917. National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC (co-organizer) (November 17, 1995-March 17, 1996).
    America Draws. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1984-March 17, 1985).
    The Painterly Print. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (May 1-June 29, 1980); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (July 29-September 28, 1980).
    Prints and Drawings, 1916-1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 20-July 24, 1966).
    What Was the Armory Show?. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 27-September 15, 1963).
  • {{cite web|title=The Theater |url=false|author=John Sloan|year=1909|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1961.162