Sketch for "Throbbing Fountain, Madison Square"
Date1907
Artist
John Sloan
(American painter, etcher, and illustrator, 1871–1951)
MediumGraphite on paper
Dimensionssheet: 7 15/16 × 10 in. (20.2 × 25.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1980
Object number1980-214.74
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextWhile living in New York, Sloan enjoyed spending time in Madison Square, a park faced by such landmarks as the Flatiron Building, the Metropolitan Life Building, and the original Madison Square Garden. Like other passersby, Sloan was attracted to the fountain at the center of the park. One day in 1906 he wrote in his diary: "My usual walk around Broadway for the Sunday papers, followed by an hour or so seated on a bench in Madison Square. Watching the summer die, watching the fountain pulsing and jetting with its little personal rainbow gleaming and fading, coming and going in the sunlight and the spray." He would complete two paintings showing the fountain. One painting depicts the scene in daylight and the other, in the Museum's collection, shows the scene at night.
