A Chance Meeting

Helen Farr Sloan is the former student and second wife of John Sloan, a member of The Eight, and a founding member of the Ash Can School. Helen was only sixteen at the time she began her studies with Sloan at the Art Students League, but she remained in touch with her teacher and was later instrumental in encouraging him to record his thoughts and teachings in the 1939 book entitled The Gist of Art. Although she was slightly over forty years his junior, Helen married John Sloan in 1944 and the two enjoyed a productive personal and professional relationship, working and living in Manhattan at the famed Chelsea Hotel and spending the summers in Santa Fe, New Mexico. John Sloan's influence on Helen's style of painting can be found in her observations of everyday life in New York City.