* Working-class neighborhoods: Sloan and his fellow Ashcan artists frequently painted scenes from lower Manhattan, Greenwich Village, and other working-class districts. Their subjects included street life, tenement buildings, bars, laundries, and other common places of the time.
* Everyday people: Their paintings featured ordinary people – laborers, children playing in the streets, shopkeepers, bar patrons, and women doing housework – going about their daily lives. These weren't portraits of wealthy elites or historical figures, but rather snapshots of the common person's existence.
* Urban scenes: The city itself was a subject. The noise, the bustle, the crowds, and the physical environment of the city were all integral parts of their compositions. They captured the dynamism and sometimes harshness of urban life.
* Moments of leisure and recreation: While focusing on the realities of daily life, the Ashcan artists also depicted moments of leisure and amusement, such as people enjoying themselves in parks or attending sporting events. However, these depictions still retained a sense of realism and were not overly sentimentalized.
In short, Sloan and the Ashcan School drew their subjects from the vibrant, bustling, and often overlooked corners of early 20th-century New York City, presenting a realistic and unvarnished portrayal of life as it was lived by the majority of its population.