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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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[ 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. 43.1.23
Richard Henry Wilde
Alternate title: Portrait of Richard Henry Wilde
c.1845–47
Locale: Likely Washington, D.C. or Boston, Massachusetts
Drawing [specific media unknown]
[dimensions unknown]
Present whereabouts unknown
Description / Remarks

MacGibeny, 2022: Although Mrs. Johnson's letter, quoted below, misstates Richard Henry Wilde's name and other details including the date when this drawing would have been done, her reference to the portrait is corroborated by the engraving by John Sartain. See the linked image of the engraving for the drawing's appearance.

Elizabeth Johnson letter to the Smithsonian Institute, December 1, 1906: "Please excuse this long letter but I am most happy that we are to have a National Gallery and I think a National portrait [sic] Gallery like the English for our heroes and literary and distinguished men would be a great honor and satisfaction to the country. These portraits are on exhibition and sale with all Mr. Eastman Johnson’s other works of his studio. He made 34 portraits in 1843 [sic] - judges McLean and Story of the Supreme Court, foreign ministers - Maud [sic], Mrs. Hamilton Fish, a poet Mr. Wm. Henry Wilde of New Orleans - Secretary of the Navy Dobbins and in 1847 went to Boston on invitation of Mr. Longfellow to take portraits of his wife and children, his friends Nathaniel Hawthorne, Chas. Sumner, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Pres. Felton of Harvard and others.”

Provenance
Rufus Wilmot Griswold, by 1847
Present whereabouts unknown
References
Griswold 1847a
Griswold, Rufus Wilmot. The Prose Writers of America. Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1847, p. 258, as Portrait of Richard Henry Wilde, reproduces John Sartain's engraving after this image, captioned "From a Picture by J. E. Johnson, in possession of R. W. Griswold".
Griswold 1847b
Griswold, Rufus Wilmot. The Prose Writers of America. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty, 1847, p. 258, as Portrait of Richard Henry Wilde, reproduces John Sartain's engraving after this image, captioned "From a Picture by J. E. Johnson, in possession of R. W. Griswold".
Tucker 1965
Tucker, Edward L. "Charles Sumner and Richard Henry Wilde." The Georgia Historical Quarterly 49, no. 3 (September 1965), p. 322: "Wilde and Sumner had other friends in common: the sculptors Horatio Greenough and Hiram Powers, Americans living in Italy; Francis Lieber; Edward Everett; and various members of the Appleton family—Frances Appleton, Nathan Appleton, and the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who married Frances Appleton. They also had their portraits painted by the same struggling artist, Eastman Johnson," [Note that Tucker incorrectly states that the portraits were painted, rather than drawn.]
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Wilde, Richard Henry
Biography:

Richard Henry Wilde (1789–1847). U.S. Representative and lawyer from Georgia. Poet and biographer.

Keywords
enlarge
Photo: Reproduction in unidentified publication, by 1932
Portrait of Richard Henry Wilde [engraving by John Sartain]
c.1845–47
Engraving (mezzotint)
Sheet: 7 7/8 x 5 in. (20 x 12.7 cm)
Printed lower left: DRAWN BY JOHNSON; lower right: ENG'D BY J. SARTAIN
National Portrait Gallery, London, purchased with help from the Friends of the National Libraries and the Pilgrim Trust, 1966 (NPG D4790)

See all Prints after Works by Johnson.

Record last updated March 30, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Richard Henry Wilde, c.1845–47 (Hills no. 43.1.23)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?SystemID=1488 (accessed on April 18, 2024).