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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, MA, Project Manager

Catalogue Entry

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Photo: Courtesy the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
[ 43.1 U.S. Early Portrait Drawings, Men ]info
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43.1 U.S. Early Portrait Drawings, Men

The earliest recorded portrait drawing of a known individual by Johnson is Henry Sewell, done in Augusta, Maine, and dated November 26, 1844. Already in 1844, when Johnson was twenty, this work shows the artist's superb use of charcoal (black chalk) to highlight the lights and shadow that capture the three-dimensionality of his sitter. This talent may have been initiated from the time he worked in a lithography shop in Boston, and also the availability of mezzotints. 

The Sewell portrait also shows Johnson’s understanding of anatomy in the sitter’s facial structure. During this period, 1844–1949, Johnson almost always used charcoal (black chalk) for his portraits. Some are half-length portraits including hands, but the majority are heads (and necks) alone. He took about three days to complete a charcoal portrait. The style of the time was to present portraits in oval frames. 

See Technical Information on Johnson's Practices for a discussion of charcoal, black chalk, crayon, and pastel. —PH

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Hills no. 43.1.17
Henry Sewall
de Young Museum - Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco title: General Henry Sewall
Alternate title: General Sewell [sic]
1844, November 26
Locale: Augusta, Maine
Black and white chalks on brown wove paper mounted on cardboard
21 1/4 x 15 1/16 in. (54 x 38.3 cm) (sheet); 21 1/2 x 15 1/4 in. (54.6 x 38.7 cm) (board)
Signed and dated lower left on armrest, in black chalk: 1844/E. Johnson; verso, in center of mount, in graphite: G. Henry Sewall, Aged 92/Augusta, Me./Nov 26, 1844/E. Johnson, del
de Young Museum - Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd (1979.7.68)
Description / Remarks

de Young Museum website, accessed January 11, 2014: "Half length full face portrait of a formally dressed white haired gentleman, seated in an armchair, his hands folded around his knob headed walking stick."

Provenance
Harold Asnes, Boston, until November 9, 1968
Vose Galleries, Boston, November 9, 1968
Private collection, Branford, Connecticut, January 2, 1969 (by purchase)
Vose Galleries, Boston, February 17, 1969
Private collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 20, 1969 (by purchase)
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, until June 1969
John D. Rockefeller 3rd and Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller, New York, June 1969–1979 (by purchase)
de Young Museum - Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, April 5, 1979 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1976 FAMSF
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, American Art: An Exhibition from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III, 1976. (Richardson 1976), no. 78, illus., p. 185. Traveled to: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1976.
1984 FAMSF
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, Faces and Figures: 19th Century Works on Paper, June 23–August 19, 1984.
1994 FAMSF
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, The Rockefeller Collection of American Art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, June 25–November 13, 1994. (Simpson 1994), no. 40, illus., p. 120.
2006 FAMSF
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum, San Francisco, Novelty and Nostalgia: American Drawings from the Rockefeller Collection, January 24–April 23, 2006.
References
Walton 1906
Walton, William. "Eastman Johnson, Painter." Scribner's Magazine 40 (September 1906), p. 264, as General Sewell [sic].
Kennedy Galleries 1920
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Charcoal Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1920. Exhibition catalogue (1920 Kennedy Galleries), p. 12, addendum "Paintings by Eastman Johnson," as General Sewell [sic].
Richardson 1976
Richardson, E. P. American Art: An Exhibition from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, 3rd. San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1976. Exhibition catalogue (1976 FAMSF), pp. 184–185, no. 78, illus.
Simpson 1994
Simpson, Marc. The Rockefeller Collection of American Art at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. New York: Abrams, 1994. Exhibition catalogue (1994 FAMSF), pp.119–120, no. 40, illus.
Graves 2007
Graves, Eben W. The Descendants of Henry Sewall, 1576–1656, of Manchester and Coventry, England and Newbury and Rowley, Massachusetts; The Family in England the First Six Generations in North America. Boston: Newbury Street Press, 2007, fig. 16, illus.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): June 1971
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Sewall, Henry
Biography:

General Henry Sewall (1752–1845). Soldier in the Revolutionary War, 1775–1783 [Lineage Book: National Society of the Daughters of American Revolution, vol. 13 (Washington: National Society of the Daughters of American Revolution, 1896), p. 226]. Sewall family were a well-known shipbuilding family in Bath, Maine [Note in file via American Paintings regarding sitter from Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco docent Sara Conklin (n.d., c. early 1992)].

Keywords
Record last updated March 27, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Henry Sewall, 1844, November 26 (Hills no. 43.1.17)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?SystemID=1015 (accessed on April 24, 2024).