John Sloan (1871-1951) moved from Philadelphia to New York in 1904 to pursue his career as a commercial illustrator and his calling as an observer of city life in paint, pen and print. The New York City Life etchings (1905-6) record his first encounters with a modern city shaped by immigration and cosmopolitanism, densely packed tenements and elevated trains, and new forms of popular culture and new ways of life. Conceived as a cohesive portfolio, the ten prints offer a panorama of contrasting circumstances and experiences from wealthy Fifth Avenue to Sloan’s working-class Chelsea neighbourhood, from art exhibitions to sleeping on the roof.