George Sloane (American, 1864 to 1942)
George Sloane was born in Salem, Massachusetts and trained initially at the Boston Museum School, where he met his future wife, the landscape painter Marion Parkhurst (1875 to 1955). He was strongly influenced by the exquisite cabinet paintings of Bavarian-born artist, Ignatz Marcel Gaugengigl, who achieved great fame in Boston during the last quarter of the nineteenth century when he became known as “The American Meisonnier.” Indeed, Gaugengigl was so lavishly patronized by the Boston elite of the time that his intimate paintings of French revolutionary subjects made him, for nearly two decades, the most expensive painter in America. He was an inspiration to the young Sloane who aspired to similar achievement.
From 1899 to 1902, Sloane sought additional art education in Paris, where he maintained a studio on the Avenue de Villiers. Upon his return to Boston, he was represented by R.C. Vose and shared a studio on Ipswich Street with his wife for the rest of his life. Sloane quickly became known for his highly-finished cabinet paintings in oil, as well as portrait miniatures on ivory. Favorite subjects included quiet interiors with beautifully-dressed ladies and/or gentlemen, often in seventeenth and eighteenth-century costume, engaged in genteel pursuits. Sloane exhibited his work at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, the Chicago Art Institute, and the Providence Art Club where he was a member.
While he was living in France, the artist made a practice of inscribing his works with “Paris” next to his signature. Since The Story of the Rose does not bear this inscription, it must have been a work Sloane painted after he had returned home to Boston that year.
Information courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries, June 2009.