Maratta Color Triangle for "Bleecker Street, Saturday Night"
Date1918
Artist
John Sloan
(American painter, etcher, and illustrator, 1871–1951)
MediumOil paint over print in blue ink
Dimensionssheet: 7 3/8 × 8 1/4 in. (18.7 × 21 cm)
Credit LineGift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1980
Object number1980-214.128
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextIn 1909, Sloan met Hardesty Maratta, an artist who had recently developed a new system of color harmony. Sloan experimented with Maratta's theories and the paints he was marketing, then wrote in his journal, "God Bless the Maratta colors. I can think in these!" He used the pre-printed diagrams to plan his combinations of hues, placing the three primary colors in the corners, and kept the sheets as records. With the color harmonies determined, Sloan could then concentrate on drawing and composition. These studies show his emerging views of two scenes: the storefronts of Bleecker Street and Sixth Avenue's elevated train passing the prominent tower of the Jefferson Market Courthouse.
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