Sweetest Spirit of Life's Dawning
Date1893
Artist
John Sloan
(American painter, etcher, and illustrator, 1871–1951)
MediumWatercolor and gouache on Bristol board
Dimensionssheet: 11 3/8 × 5 5/8 in. (28.9 × 14.3 cm)
Credit LineGift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1986
Object number1986-133.28
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextThis is Sloan's interpretation of a composition challenge at the Charcoal Club, a short-lived cooperative art school that Sloan helped found in Philadelphia. The artists were given a broad theme, like "spring" or "dawn," and the best interpretation was named the winner. Winners of the Charcoal Club's composition competitions were published in the Philadelphia Inquirer as advertisements for the school. Sloan's friend Ed Davis won the competition for "dawn" for which Sloan probably painted this watercolor.
