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

Catalogue Entry

enlarge
Image courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library
31.1 U.S. Portraits, Men

When Johnson returned to the United States, he not only painted genre paintings but he also continued to paint portraits, which gave him a steady income. After 1880 Johnson turned to portraiture almost exclusively. During the 1880s and 1890s he painted businessmen, lawyers, university presidents, and three U.S. presidents from life. At times he also painted their wives and children.

He was also commissioned to paint posthumous portraits, often from photographs. These portraits by and large do not have the sparkle and active brushwork of those done from life. It seems that the demand for portraits of business and civic leaders (and members of exclusive men’s clubs) was so high that portrait painters would often make copies of each other’s paintings to satisfy the market for such images. In many instances, it has been difficult to render opinions for such paintings. —PH

View all works in this theme »

Hills no. 31.1.1
Baur no. 150
Cornelius Rea Agnew
Alternate titles: Cornelius R. Agnew; Portrait, C. R. Agnew
1888
Oil on coarse canvas
30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: E Johnson/1888
Private collection, New York
Description / Remarks

Frick Art Reference Library Photoarchive files, Eastman Johnson, "Cornelius R. Agnew," b10935149, accessed April 9, 2021: "Brown hair, eyes and moustache. Grayish green suit. Brownish red background."

Provenance
The Union League Club of New York, 1889 until at least 1940 (by commission)
Private collection, New York, by 2021
Exhibitions
1889a Union League Club of New York
The Union League Club of New York, New York, February 14–16, 1889, no. 35, as Portrait, C. R. Agnew, owner Union League Club.
References
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), p. 66, no. 150, as Cornelius R. Agnew, owner The Union League Club of New York.
Douglass 1999
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, p. 264, as Portrait, C. R. Agnew.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 2020-02-19
Examination notes: Founder and a president. Good portrait—eyes left. Dark blue suit and reddish background. Moustache. Coarse canvas—dark eyes, slightly dull (possible posthumous portrait). MD at New York Hospital.

2020-02-19: Painting hung low so easier to see. Signature LR: E. Johnson/ 1888. Painting looks good; in Johnson’s usual style, somewhat less ruddy than some of the other ULC paintings.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Agnew, Cornelius Rea
Biography:

Cornelius Rea Agnew (1830–1888). Noted physician, surgeon, and clinical professor of diseases of the eye and ear; in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, in 1869 [Frick Art Reference Library].

White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.

Keywords
Record last updated April 20, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Cornelius Rea Agnew, 1888 (Hills no. 31.1.1)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1 (accessed on March 29, 2024).