Signed, titled and dated, l.l.
Inscribed “Woe Gertrude S. Drick/from her friend John Sloan/N.Y. 1918” on reverse
Oil on canvas
24 x 20 inches

Provenance
Private collection, New York

Gertrude Drick, “Woe,” was a former student of John Sloan’s at the Art Students League. A free-spirited Texan with a quirky sense of humor, Drick bestowed her ill-fitting nickname upon herself. She had a set of visiting cards made with the single word “Woe” printed on the front, so when people asked about them, she could respond: “Woe is me!”

In Gist of Art, written in 1944, Sloan spoke of Woe, who was by then his friend of over twenty years: “She had a quick, witty intelligence and I believe she liked to do the unexpected, especially during the years she lived in Greenwich Village. A happy memory – here’s luck to her!” Sloan had a particularly memorable time with his pupil one night in 1916, when Woe, a recent Texas transplant, engineered a Bohemian takeover of the arch in Washington Square. Along with Sloan, Marcel Duchamp, actors Forrest Mann, Charles Ellis and Betty Turner, Woe climbed to the enclosed space at the top of the arch and read aloud her own Declaration of Independence for Greenwich Village, the capital of which was to be the “Republic of Washington Square.” The six then proceeded to eat, drink, fire toy pistols and set free a bunch of red balloons, much to the amusement of a gathering crowd below. Sloan memorialized the night of jolly mayhem in his 1917 etching, The Arch Conspirators.

Painted in 1918, The Picture of Woe perfectly captures the young woman’s radiant exuberance. In vibrant, bold colors, Sloan depicts Woe’s smiling expression, which is, of course, the exact opposite of ‘woe’. Sloan had painted another portrait of his friend the previous year in which she appeared straight-laced and serious. The Picture of Woe, perhaps, is Sloan’s attempt to portray her as he would forever see her in his mind: vibrant, spirited and jubilant.