The West Front
Date1891
Artist
John Sloan
(American painter, etcher, and illustrator, 1871–1951)
Illustration CitationWestminster Abbey: Six Etchings with Selections (Troy, New York: Nims & Knight, 1891).
MediumEtching
Dimensionsplate: 4 7/8 × 3 1/4 in. (12.4 × 8.3 cm)
sheet: 10 13/16 × 7 in. (27.5 × 17.8 cm)
sheet: 10 13/16 × 7 in. (27.5 × 17.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1980
Object number1980-88
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPRINT
Label TextIn the early 1890s, Sloan completed several commissions for the "fancy goods," like cards, calendars, and gift books. One such assignment was an illustrated booklet with six views of Westminster Abbey, which he derived from prints of an English artist's paintings—Sloan himself never traveled to London. This series attests to his early skill in the technique of etching, which he learned by studying a "how to manual." Sloan depicted exterior views of the Cathedral as well as interior details, such as the famous "Poets' Corner," which holds the tombs and monuments of eminent English authors from Chaucer to Shakespeare to Tennyson.
