Reading in the Subway

John Sloan

1926 · Etching · Drawings and Prints

Sloan, a chronicler of scenes observed on the streets of New York, wrote in his diary that the lines of seventeenth-century British poet John Suckling came to mind when he encountered a woman reading on a subway car. Suckling’s poem reads: "Her feet beneath her petticoat / Like little mice peeped in and out, / As if they feared the light." The advertisement behind the woman’s head includes an amusing detail, publicizing Sloan’s liniment—a lotion meant to relieve hand pain.

Artist

John Sloan

Date

1926

Medium

Etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney, 1926