Eric SloaneSelections#5

Dateline: 13 January 2014

Painting by Eric Sloane

The early American had magnificent spirit and profound purpose. He created his homestead for future generations with sincere preparation for them to be independent people. He lived in an agrarian age of self-dependence and barter; money had not yet become the foundation of our national economy. Every American's trust was in God. The American knew his reason for being and he had that rare awareness of his past, his present and his future. All this seemed a gospel worthy of any painter's labor and this is what I have been trying to preach in oils all these years.

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God creates and man strives to re-create. My joy in writing or painting is experienced when I have re-created and brought to life some past consciousness, some profound instant, or some stirring sight that once aroused my emotion.

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Art is the reflection of its time and so modern art happens to be a true mirror of modern times. On the walls of any "modern museum" you will see all the variations of escape from the conglomeration and mad uncertainty known as today. You will sense the hostility toward tradition and the absence of purpose that prevails in today's life.

—Eric Sloane, 
From the book,  Legacy  (1979)

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Eric Sloane was a prolific artist. According to Forrest Fenn, who sold Sloane's paintings in his art gallery in Taos, New Mexico…

"[Eric Sloane] could produce a major painting in a few hours, go to lunch with me and to dinner that night with his wife. People don't believe me when I say that, but it's true. One time we had twelve of his paintings in my office waiting for them to dry so we could put them in the bins."

Mr. Fenn writes that back in the 1980's he sold Eric Sloane's oil-on-Masonite paintings for $17 a square inch. A 21" x 43" painting would sell for $15,000, and Sloane would get $10,000 of that. Fenn says his gallery sold 170 Sloane paintings in the three years between 1982 and 1984. Do the math. Then add in the paintings Sloane was selling  at the Hammer Gallery in New York City, and the profits from his many books. He was not only talented, he was a hard working, and very successful entrepreneur.

Eric Sloane died in 1985. Twenty-two years after his death, his paintings were selling for $81 a square inch.

This information is derived from This Online Excerpt of Forrest Fen's book, Seventeen Dollars A Square Inch.