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Image Not Available for Connoisseurs of Prints
Connoisseurs of Prints
Image Not Available for Connoisseurs of Prints

Connoisseurs of Prints

Maker (American, 1871-1951)
Date1905
MediumEtching on paper
DimensionsPlate: 5 × 6 7/8 in. (12.7 × 17.5 cm)
Sheet (irregular, max.): 9 7/8 × 12 3/4 in. (25.1 × 32.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Delaware Art Museum
Collections
Object number2008.213
Status
Not on view
Description
Connoisseurs of Prints was the opening image in Sloan’s first etched series, New York City Life (1905–06), and it gently satirizes the art pretensions of the upper classes in the manner of the socially-minded French printmaker Honoré Daumier.  With exaggerated postures, expressions, and gestures, these connoisseurs are scrutinizing prints at an auction preview in the American Art Galleries, New York.  As an artist who constantly placed his work before the public yet rarely made a sale, Sloan had mixed feelings about the art market.  He had originally intended an entire series devoted to connoisseurs, but it was never made.  Other prints in the New York City Life series, because of their more risqué subject matter, were perceived as vulgar and caused a controversy.