The New York Tenderloin of John Sloan in Eugene O'Neill's Last Plays

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Artist John Sloan (1871–1951) lived on the southern border of the Tenderloin in New York City from 1904 until 1912 and walked the neighborhood daily for subject matter to draw and paint. His canvases seem like stage composition in which the figures within a scene look at one another while inviting the viewer's participation. The dynamics between who is watching and who is being watched create stories in his pictures and, the author argues, inspire charitable feelings for characters in O'Neill's last plays: compassion for their situations; empathy for what they must endure; forgiveness for their transgressions; and redemption for their lives. To conclude the connections between the painter and the playwright, Sloan's painting of a sunset in the Tenderloin is interpreted as a visual benediction for Jamie Tyrone in A Moon for the Misbegotten.