Out of the Mouths — Hast Thou Ordained Strength
Date1913
Artist
John Sloan
(American painter, etcher, and illustrator, 1871–1951)
Illustration CitationSketch related to "Innocent Girlish Prattle," cover design for The Masses, November 1913.
MediumGraphite on paper
Dimensionssheet: 6 1/2 x 4 in. (16.5 x 10.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1986
Object number1986-133.295
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextThis sketch is clearly related to Sloan's cover illustration for The Masses entitled "Innocent Girlish Prattle—Plus Environment." The caption for the published version gives a snippet of their conversation: "What! Him? The little — — — — —! He's worse'n she is, the — — —!" This drawing is titled "Out of the mouths — hast thou ordained strength," and the dialogue here is a bit more lively, reading: "He! Why the bastard he's a god damned dirty — — — — worsten she is, the lousy stinking lowdown whore."
Both versions find humor in the foul language of the pretty young women. This drawing may be an early conception, from which Sloan removed the Biblical reference and the strongest language to make it more appropriate for a cover illustration. It also could be a later joke.
