Van Sloun was born in 1879 in Saint Paul, Minnesota.[1][2] He was influenced by Rembrandt from a young age, and he studied at the Art Students League of New York and the Chase School of Art, later known as the Parsons School of Design.[2]
Van Sloun became an artist in New York City, and he moved to San Francisco in 1911.[2] He taught at the California School of Fine Arts, and he joined the California Society of Etchers.[2] He had a studio at 166 Geary Street in San Francisco.[1] He painted murals in the Oakland City Hall, the Bohemian Club in San Francisco, and the California State Library in Sacramento. With Maynard Dixon, he did the murals of the dining-room in the Mark Hopkins Hotel, in San Francisco.[1]
For art historian John Maxwell Desgrey, "Van Sloun's greatness as an American artist did not only lie in his skills, training, and God-given talent as an artist, but more importantly in his American roots. He was completely a product of America, not only in his art training but in his subject matter and technique."[2]
Van Sloun died in August 1938 in San Francisco, at age 59.[1] He was buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery.[1] His artwork is in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.[3][4] It is also in the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena,[5] the Mills College Art Museum in Oakland,[6] Saint Mary's College Museum of Art in Moraga,[7] and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.[8]
