(1905-1985)
Eric Sloane was born, Everard Jean Hinrichs, in New York City. Early on he took interest in art, spending many boyhood hours with neighbor and noted inventor, Frederic Goudy (Goudy Type). At an early age, he learned to hand paint letters and signs. Some of Sloane's first clients included aviation pioneers flying out of Roosevelt Field, Long Island. Sloane fell in love with the clouds and sky, themes that would be central to his work for the rest of his life. Among his early clients was Amelia Earhardt, who bought his first cloud painting. Said to be the finest cloud painter of his generation, his largest cloud painting graces an entire wall of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.
Sloane worked his way across America, painting signs on barns, buildings and stores, all the while gathering images of a country in expansion. One of his most notable stays was at the Taos Pueblo, just north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1975, Sloane built a home in La Tierra near Santa Fe, called "Las Nuves" or "The Clouds." He spent most of his later life preserving the practical architecture and stoic lives of the first European settlers, in oil paints and writing.
Sloane is credited with being the foremost authority on Early American rural architecture and Early American tools. His many paintings and drawings are considered the most important historical source works on the subjects. It is said that Sloane's spirit lives on today as if he is determined to keep the invincible Early American Spirit alive.