Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
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Photo: The Art Institute of Chicago
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26.3 Nantucket Cornhusking
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. 26.3.3
Baur no. 55
Husking Bee, Island of Nantucket
Alternate titles: Corn Huskers; Corn Husking; Corn Husking Bee; Cornhusking Bee; Epis de blés; Husking; The Corn Husking
1876
Locale: Nantucket, Massachusetts
Oil on canvas
27 1/4 x 54 3/16 in. (69.2 x 137.6 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson/1876
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Exhibitions
National Academy of Design, New York, Fifty-first Annual Exhibition, March 28–May 31, 1876. (NAD 1876a), no. 285, as Husking Bee, Island of Nantucket.
Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1878. (Exposition Universelle 1878), no. 69, as Epis de blés, owner N. Sarony.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Loan Collection of Paintings, April–October 1880, no. 44, as The Corn Husking, owner N. Sarony.
Chicago Interstate Industrial Exposition, Chicago, Inter-State Industrial Exposition of Chicago, 1882. (Exhibition catalogue: Chicago Inter-State 1882), no. 612, as Corn Husking, Lent by N. Sarony, New York.
The Union League Club of New York, New York, Loan Collection, November 14–16, 1889, no. 19, as Corn Husking, owner N. Sarony.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Paintings Exhibited at the Opening of the New Galleries, February 24, 1890, no. 245, as Corn Husking, owner Mr. Potter Palmer.
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. 55, b/w illus., Pl. XXXII, as Corn Husking Bee.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, The Painters' America, Rural and Urban Life, 1810–1910, September 20–November 10, 1974. (Exhibition catalogue: Hills 1974), no. 63, illus., as Corn Husking Bee. Traveled to: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, December 5, 1974–January 19, 1975; Oakland Museum, Oakland, California, February 10–March 30, 1975.
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, Eastman Johnson: Painting America, October 29, 1999–February 6, 2000. (Exhibition catalogue: Carbone and Hills 1999), no. 44, color illus., p. 85, as Husking Bee, Island of Nantucket. Traveled to: San Diego Museum of Fine Arts, San Diego, February 25–May 21, 2000; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, June 8–September 10, 2000.
References
New York: National Academy of Design, 1876. Exhibition catalogue (1876 NAD), no. 285, as Husking Bee, Island of Nantucket.
Catalogue Officiel. Tome I. Paris: Exposition Universelle Internationale, 1878. Exhibition catalogue (1878 Exposition Universelle), no. 69, as Epis de blés.
"American Genre Painters: Eastman Johnson, Winslow Homer and the Rest." New York Times, August 25, 1878, p. 10: “The best genre picture in the American section of the French Exhibition, is the ‘Corn Husking,’ by Eastman Johnson…not a realistic rendering of corn-husking…it is an artistic rendering. You get an idea of corn-husking, but you must see it through the eyes of an artist, and he makes you understand and enjoy the color harmonies existing between the green grass and the straw of the corn and the gray Fall sky beyond…the subject is subordinated to the treatment…”.
Benjamin, S. G. W. "A Representative American." The Magazine of Art 5 (November 1882), p. 489.
Illustrated Catalogue of the Art Hall of the Inter-State Industrial Exposition of Chicago. Chicago: Rand, McNally, & Co., 1882. Exhibition catalogue (1882 Chicago Inter-State Industrial Exposition), p. 78, no. 612, as Corn Husking, $5,000, Lent by N. Sarony, New York.
Hartmann, Sadakichi. "Eastman Johnson: American Genre Painter." The International Studio 34 (April 1908), p. 111, as Corn Huskers.
A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1932, pp. 111, 159, illus.
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. 50, 62, no. 55, as Corn Husking Bee.
Crosby, Everett U. Eastman Johnson at Nantucket: His Paintings and Sketches of Nantucket People and Scenes. Nantucket, MA, 1944, p. 12, C.1, as Corn Husking Bee.
Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1961, p. 248.
Hills, Patricia. Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1972. Exhibition catalogue (1972 Whitney Museum), p. 89, no. 79, illus. (mistakenly titled as Metropolitan Museum of Art version).
Hills, Patricia. The Painters' America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810–1910. New York: Praeger, 1974. Exhibition catalogue (1974 Whitney Museum), p. 79, fig. 97, illus., as Corn Husking Bee.
American Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago from Colonial Times to World War I. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1998, pp. 227–29, no. 106, illus.
Carbone, Teresa A., and Patricia Hills. Eastman Johnson: Painting America. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications, 1999. Exhibition catalogue (1999 Brooklyn Museum), p. 85, no. 44, as Husking Bee, Island of Nantucket.
Douglass, Julie M. "Lifetime Exhibition History." In Eastman Johnson: Painting America, by Teresa A. Carbone and Patricia Hills. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications, 1999. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 262, 263, 264.
Hills Examination/Opinion
Examination date(s): 1970-06
Examination notes: Yellows, blue and reds spotted around, e.g. man walking away has blue sleeves; woman with red dress; green at side and foreground; woman standing white apron; compositional focus is red dress. Couture-like sketchiness; even gray flat sky; sienna brush at side; chickens pick up left side; touches of blue, green and red and white on distant figures. Faces are brown pink blobs—standing figures features felt. Excellent. Very free and fresh. Grey sky. Chickens well done. Bodies well felt.
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Record last updated December 16, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Husking Bee, Island of Nantucket, 1876 (Hills no. 26.3.3)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?SystemID=412 (accessed on May 11, 2025).