JOHN SLOAN
The Lafayette.
Etching, 1928. 125x174 mm; 5x6 inches, wide margins. Sixth state (of 6). Edition 80 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed and inscribed "100 proofs" in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression with strong contrasts. The Lafayette was a storied French restaurant and hotel, located at 9th Street and University Place in Greenwich Village. Sloan (1871-1951) painted the establishment in 1927; the oil on canvas in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Juliana Force, assistant to Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, cognizant of Sloan's financial hardships at the time, organized a collection to purchase the same-titled painting from the artist. The painting was donated to the museum in 1928, with the credit line "Gift of The Friends of John Sloan." In gratitude Sloan created and mailed approximately 50 impressions of the current etching to the fund contributors, mostly Sloan's fellow artists. Morse 233.