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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
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Photo: John R. Glembin, courtesy the Milwaukee Art Museum
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26.2 Nantucket Genre—Outdoors
In June 1869 Johnson married Elizabeth Buckley of Troy, New York, and the following summer he and his wife and their baby, Ethel, went to Nantucket, Massachusetts for the season. Johnson responded enthusiastically to Nantucket, which seemed to be filled with characters and activities that appealed to him, and the couple returned to the island each summer. Beside painting genre scenes of men, women, and children both indoors and outside, Johnson launched a major theme—the cranberry harvest—a time in the fall when the whole community turned out to pick the wild cranberries ripening in the bogs of Nantucket. Johnson made at least eighteen studies before crafting his major painting, The Cranberry Harvest, which was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1880. —PH
Hills no. 26.2.1
Baur no. 127
Old Stage Coach
Layton Art Collection Inc. title: The Old Stagecoach
Alternate titles: Last Service of Old Stage Coach; Old Coach; Old Stage-Coach; Stagecoach; The Old Stage Coach; The Old Stage-Coach
1871
Locale: Nantucket, Massachusetts
Oil on canvas
36 1/4 x 60 1/8 in. (92.1 x 152.7 cm)
Initialed and dated lower left: E.J 1871
Description / Remarks
Hills, 2021: The leftmost figure is a Black girl playing with the other children. Here Johnson is acknowledging that there was a sizeable Black population in Nantucket in the 1870s.
According to Eric Vogel, President of the Layton Art Collection (email dated October 19, 2010), this painting was cut down at the top by about four inches at some point. The Milwaukee Art Museum has a stereograph photograph taken at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876 that confirms its earlier state.
Milwaukee Art Museum website, accessed February 17, 2021: "This energetic and convincingly spontaneous scene of children playing on the wreck of a stagecoach was actually staged in Nantucket on a platform, which the artist altered in the studio to conform to an abandoned coach he had drawn in the Catskills."
Provenance
[Samuel P. Avery, New York, 1871]
George Whitney, 1871–1885 (by purchase from Samuel P. Avery)
[American Art Galleries, New York, December 16–18, 1885, Collection of Modern Paintings of Mr. Geo. Whitney, no. 226 (as The Old Stage Coach)]
Frederick Layton, 1885–1888
Layton Art Collection Inc., 1888 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1871a Century Association
Century Association, New York, February 4, 1871, no. 22, as Stagecoach.1871 Brooklyn Art Association
Brooklyn Art Association, Brooklyn, New York, March 14–18, 1871, no. 92, as Last Service of Old Stage Coach, owner S. P. Avery.1871 Goupil & Cie.
Goupil & Cie, New York, March 10, 1871, as Old Stage Coach.1871 NAD
National Academy of Design, April 14–?, 1871. (NAD 1871), no. 274, as The Old Stage Coach, owner George Whitney.1875 Chicago Interstate Industrial Exposition
Chicago Interstate Industrial Exposition, Chicago, 1875, no. 208, as The Old Stage Coach, owner George Whitney, Philadelphia.1876 United States Centennial Commission
United States Centennial Commission, Philadelphia, Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, May 10–November 1876, no. 195, as The Old Stage-coach, owner George Whitney.1884 Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Loan Collection of Paintings and Sculpture, May–October 1884, no. 208, as The Old Stage Coach, owner Geo. Whitney, Phila.1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, as The Old Stage Coach.1939 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, An American Genre Painter: Eastman Johnson, 1824–1906, January 18, 1939–February 26, 1940. (Exhibition catalogue: Baur 1940), no. 127, b/w illus., Pl. XIX, as The Old Stage Coach.1972 Whitney Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition, March 28–May 14, 1972. (Exhibition catalogue: Hills 1972a), no. 62, b/w illus., p. 73, as The Old Stage Coach. Traveled to: The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, June 7–July 22, 1972; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, August 15–September 30, 1972; Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, October 20–December 3, 1972.References
Johnson, Eastman 1870
Eastman Johnson, Nantucket, Mass, letter to Samuel P. Avery, October 30, 1870, Thomas J. Watson Library, Autograph letters. American / presented by Samuel P. Avery, Jr, "I shall bring home a pretty large picture that I have nearly completed here, a stage coach with some 15 figures, chlldren playlng in it - 4 feet by 5…," pp. 1–2.NAD 1871
New York: National Academy of Design, 1871. Exhibition catalogue (1871 NAD), no. 274, as The Old Stage Coach.Philadelphia Inquirer 1871
"Things in New York." The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 13, 1871, p. 7: "…one from Eastman Johnson, entitled 'Old Coach,' an abandoned vehicle in which lithesome children have taken passage…," as Old Coach.New York Times 1871b
New York Times, March 12, 1871, p. 5 ["Eastman Johnson's "Old Stage Coach" was exhibited at Goupil's on Friday and attracted a group of visitors."], as Old Stage Coach.Centennial Exhibition 1876
Official Catalogue of the International Exhibition of 1876. Part II: Art Gallery, Annexes, and Outdoor Works of Art. Department IV: Art. Cambridge, MA: John R. Nagle & Company, 1876. Exhibition catalogue, p. 22, no. 195, as The Old Stage-Coach, owner George Whitney.Benjamin 1882
Benjamin, S. G. W. "A Representative American." The Magazine of Art 5 (November 1882), p. 488.AAG 1885b
Catalogue of the Collection of Modern Paintings etc, Formed by the Late Mr. George Whitney of Philadelphia. New York: American Art Galleries, December 1885. Sale catalogue, p. 69, no. 226, as The Old Stage Coach (Painted to order by S. P. Avery).Fowler 1906
Fowler, Frank. "Eastman Johnson—His Life and Works." Scribner's Magazine 40, no. 2 (August 1906), p. 256.Walton 1906
Walton, William. "Eastman Johnson, Painter." Scribner's Magazine 40 (September 1906), pp. 269, 272.Frazier Gallery 1937a
Frazier Gallery. Eastman Johnson: 1824–1906: Forerunner of Homer and Eakins. New York: Frazier Gallery, 1937. Exhibition catalogue (1937 Frazier Gallery), p. 8, no. 7, as Old Stage Coach.Baur 1940
Baur, John I. H. An American Genre Painter: Eastman Johnson, 1824–1906. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, 1940. Exhibition catalogue (1939 Brooklyn Museum), pp. 45, 65, no. 127, Pl. XIX, as The Old Stage Coach.Crosby 1944
Crosby, Everett U. Eastman Johnson at Nantucket: His Paintings and Sketches of Nantucket People and Scenes. Nantucket, MA, 1944, p. 16, C.37, as The Old Stage Coach.Hills 1972a
Hills, Patricia. Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1972. Exhibition catalogue (1972 Whitney Museum), p. 73, no. 62, illus.Marling 1988
Marling, Karal Ann. George Washington Slept Here: Colonial Revivals and American Culture, 1876–1986. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988, pp. 64-65, fig 3.14, as Old Stage Coach.Hills 2000
Hills, Patricia. "Eastman Johnson on Nantucket." In Picturing Nantucket: An Art History of the Island with Paintings from the Collection of the Nantucket Historical Association, edited by Michael A. Jehle. Nantucket, MA: Nantucket Historical Association, 2000, p. 36.Nantucket Historical Association 2000
The Island with Paintings from the Collection of the Nantucket Historical Association. Nantucket, MA: Nantucket Historical Association, 2000, pp. 35-47 illus.. See MAM website for extended bibliography.Related work
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Record last updated September 17, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Old Stage Coach, 1871 (Hills no. 26.2.1)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?SystemID=405 (accessed on April 27, 2024).