Burro with Load of Wood, Arroyo

John Sloan "spent 32 summers in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from 1918 to 1950. Like many other early 20th-century painters, Sloan was attracted to the West for its subject matter...Sloan's long time mentor and close personal friend, Robert Henri, spent a great deal of time in Santa Fe. It was Henri's praise for New Mexico—he said it was the finest place in the world to paint--that eventually persuaded Sloan to go West." (T. Folk, “The Western Paintings of John Sloan,” Art and Antiques, vol. V, March-April 1982, p. 100) After his first drive out to New Mexico with fellow artist Randall Davey and their wives in the summer of 1918, Sloan fell in love with the land and eventually purchased an old adobe house on Garcia Street, designing a studio with an observation platform in the backyard. In the present work, Sloan captures the vivid colors and sprawling, hilly terrain of the Southwest.