Procession to the Cross of the Martyrs
Sloan, John, American painter, printmaker 1871-1951
1930
gum arabic tempera underpaint; oil varnish glaze on panel
Gift of the John Sloan Memorial Foundation, 1997

At the suggestion of Robert Henri who had visited Santa Fe in 1916 and 1917, John Sloan ceased spending summers in the artists' colony of Gloucester, preferring instead the less populated and more inexpensive Southwest from 1919 onwards. Santa Fe and its environs stimulated the production of numerous paintings, drawings and prints from Sloan who focused his artistic explorations on the New Mexico landscape as well as the Native American, Hispanic and Caucasian peoples, customs and rituals he found there.

'Procession to the Cross of the Martyrs' is Sloan's representation of the candlelight pilgrimage up the pathway to the Cross of the Martyrs, a monument erected to commemorate twenty-one fallen Franciscan friars in the 1680 Pueblo Indian Revolt. Celebrated on the final evening of Fiesta Week in Santa Fe every September, the procession attracts large crowds of people. Set high on a hill overlooking the town of Santa Fe, the scene focuses on the white stone cross set against a brilliant night sky of aqua blue inhabited by a silvered moon, clouds and ascending smoke. The intense gold and orange glow of candlelight and fireplaces that line the winding path up to the cross create bold color contrasts to the luminosity on the night sky that adds an overall mystical and spiritual quality to the painting.