I Am Thy Father's Ghost
Date1934
Artist
John Sloan
(American painter, etcher, and illustrator, 1871–1951)
MediumGraphite on paper
Dimensionssheet: 6 5/8 × 4 13/16 in. (16.8 × 12.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of Helen Farr Sloan, 2000
Object number2000-272
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextThis cartoon references The Masses, a Socialist magazine for which Sloan worked from 1913 to 1916, and the later Marxist magazine The New Masses, published between 1926 and 1948. Sloan was involved at the launch of The New Masses but his participation quickly faded. Here, he portrays The Masses as a massive human figure, while The New Masses is a small man, grasping the hammer and sickle of the Soviet Republic. Sloan may be hinting at his preference for the broader liberal agenda that characterized The Masses during his time there, in contrast to party-line politics.
Henry James Soulen
1945
