John Sloan

As a member of "The Eight," a group of artists who challenged the anachronistic dictates of the Academy, John Sloan was a passionate chronicler of the untidy realities of urban American life, who believed that "character is everything in art" and that "a national character can only be acquired by remaining at home and saturating ourselves in the spirit of the land until it oozes from our pores and pencils." And in this vivid account we learn that there was another reason for the young artist to stay home: to help create the political and intellectual ferment that would define bohemian life in…