Miss Boston

John Sloan was a member of the early twentieth-century group of American painters known as “The Eight.” The group, which joined forces as a reaction against what they saw as the decadence of Impressionism, began holding its own independent exhibitions in 1908. It included Arthur B. Davies, William Glackens, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Everett Shinn, and Sloan. Miss Boston, an image rife with sarcasm and vitriol—possibly sexist and definitely urban centric—is the first painting by any member of The Eight to enter the Athenæum’s collection, a gift of the estate of Helen Farr Sloan, the artist’s wife.