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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: Brooklyn Museum
[ 43.2 U.S. Early Portrait Drawings, Men, Unidentified ]info
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43.2 U.S. Early Portrait Drawings, Men, Unidentified

The men in these portraits have not yet been identified by name. However, the drawings are known or believed to have been done in the United States, before Johnson went to Europe to learn to paint in late 1849, based on evidence including their inscriptions and the appearance of the sitters and style of the drawings when images are available. Further research may enable the sitters to be identified. —AM

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Hills no. 43.2.1
Baur no. 358
Old Man
Alternate titles: Head of a Man; Portrait Drawing of a Man; Portrait of a Man
1844, July
Locale: Maine
Charcoal and white chalk on paper
12 13/16 x 10 3/4 in. (32.5 x 27.3 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson July 1844
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Carll H. de Silver Fund (32.1717.1)
Description / Remarks

MacGibeny, 2022: The verso of the companion drawing, Old Woman, is inscribed "79 ys 23 May 1844 LG 70 YS 19th February 1844," which may refer to the ages of two people. Perhaps the subject of Old Woman was 79 years old on May 23, 1844, and the man in this companion drawing, Old Man (whose initials may have been "LG") was 70 years old on February 19, 1844.

Baur 1940, p. 77: "Evidently a pair with the Head of a Woman [Old Woman] (no. 370). It is about the same size and both are matted uniformly in arch-topped mats."

Provenance
Victor D. Spark, New York, until 1932
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York, 1932 (by purchase)
Exhibitions
1972 Whitney Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition, March 28–May 14, 1972. (Exhibition catalogue: Hills 1972a), no. 2, b/w illus., p. 6, as Head of a Man. 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.
1999 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, Eastman Johnson: Painting America, October 29, 1999–February 6, 2000. (Exhibition catalogue: Carbone and Hills 1999), no. 2, color illus., p. 10, as Head of a Man. 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
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. 77, no. 358, as Head of a Man.
Hills 1972a
Hills, Patricia. Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1972. Exhibition catalogue (1972 Whitney Museum), p. 6, no. 2, illus., as Head of a Man.
Hills 1977
Hills, Patricia. The Genre Paintings of Eastman Johnson: The Sources and Development of His Style and Themes. New York: Garland Publishing, 1977, p. 191, illus., fig. 2, as Head of a Man.
Carbone and Hills 1999
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), pp. 10, 12, no. 2, illus., as Head of a Man.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): March 1971
Examination notes: Touches of white on hair, eyes, tip of nose, collar. Effaced strokes. Broad dark areas.

[February 10, 2020 comment: Johnson aware of musculature under the skin in areas of cheeks and jaw.]
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Keywords
Record last updated March 22, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Old Man, 1844, July (Hills no. 43.2.1)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1024 (accessed on May 3, 2024).