The Public Reception Of An Image stands as a testament to its cultural 1 and social meanings. Nevertheless, the painting Hairdresser's Window (Figure 1) by the American Realist John Sloan (1871–1951) has yet to be considered in light of its contemporary criticism. The response of Sloan's early-20th-century audience was ambivalent and thus raises questions concerning the social issues embodied in this painting. Because Hairdresser's Window contains the major motifs recurring throughout Sloan's oeuvre (for example, windows, stereotyped figures, working-class women, and the inclusion of spectators within the picture), it will be used as paradigm to explore the social relevance of his personal mode of spectatorship, a practice that had its counterpart in the public sphere and was paralleled in other works of American Realist painting.