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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: Courtesy of Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York
Self-Portrait, 1848 (Hills no. 46.0.1). George Henry Hall (American, 1825–1913). Self-Portrait, 1845. Oil on canvas, 29 1/2 x 24 1/2 in. (75 x 62.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Jennie Brownscombe, 15.331
George Henry Hall (American, 1825–1913). Self-Portrait, 1845. Oil on canvas, 29 1/2 x 24 1/2 in. (75 x 62.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Jennie Brownscombe, 15.331
Photo: Brooklyn Museum
Self-Portrait, 1848 (Hills no. 46.0.1). Eastman Johnson, Self-Portrait, c. 1850
Eastman Johnson, Self-Portrait, c. 1850
Photo: Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
Self-Portrait, 1848 (Hills no. 46.0.1). Left: George Henry Hall, Self-Portrait, 1845; center; Eastman Johnson, Self-Portrait [formerly Portrait of a Young Man], 1848; right: Eastman Johnson, Self-Portrait, c. 1850
Left: George Henry Hall, Self-Portrait, 1845; center; Eastman Johnson, Self-Portrait [formerly Portrait of a Young Man], 1848; right: Eastman Johnson, Self-Portrait, c. 1850
[ 46.0 Self-Portrait Drawings ]info
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46.0 Self-Portrait Drawings

Over the course of his career, Johnson did relatively few drawings of himself. He preferred to use himself as a subject for his oils. Along with the oils, the drawings give a chronological progression of how he looked and what affect he wanted to convey in the different decades. —PH

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Hills no. 46.0.1
Self-Portrait
Alternate title: Portrait of a Young Man
1848
Charcoal and white chalk on beige paper
18 x 15 in. (45.7 x 38.1 cm) (oval)
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson/1848
Present whereabouts unknown
Description / Remarks

MacGibeny, 2022: This 1848 drawing has been thought to be both a self-portrait of Johnson and a portrait of Johnson's friend and fellow artist George Henry Hall, whom he met in 1848 and with whom he traveled to Düsseldorf in 1849 to learn to paint. See the linked images of Johnson's self-portrait drawing of 1850, Hall's self-portrait painting of 1845, and a side-by-side comparison of all three images.

Provenance
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, until April 12, 1968
IBM Corporation, April 12, 1968 (by purchase)
[Sotheby's, September 14, 1995, Sale 6736, lot 7, Property of the IBM International Foundation (as Portrait of a Young Man)]
The Hendershott Collection, by February 19, 1996
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, [possibly, as Self-Portrait, 1848, crayon].
1968 Kennedy Galleries
Kennedy Galleries, New York, American Drawings, Pastels and Watercolors/Part Two: The Nineteenth Century, 1825–1890, April–May 1968, no. 21, illus., p. 22.
1972 Whitney Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition, March 28–May 14, 1972. (Exhibition catalogue: Hills 1972a), no. 5, b/w illus., p. 12, as Portrait of a Young 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.
References
New York Times 1907a
"Eastman Johnson's Paintings Shown: Genre Pictures of the Old School at the Century." New York Times, February 11, 1907, p. 9: "…a careful pencil portrait of the artist himself, drawn in 1848…"
Hills 1972a
Hills, Patricia. Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1972. Exhibition catalogue (1972 Whitney Museum), p. 12, no. 5, illus., as Portrait of a Young 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. 194, fig. 7, as Portrait of a Young Man.
Century Association n.d.
Index of Works Exhibited at the Century Association, 1869–1917. Compiled by Jonathan Harding, Curator. n.d. Century Association Foundation Archives, New York, as Self-Portrait, 1848, crayon.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): July 23, 1971
Examination notes: Eyes are focused higher than eye level as if he were looking into a mirror. A sitter would not be higher than the artist. Good drawing. Intelligent face.
Johnson, Jonathan Eastman
Keywords
Record last updated October 12, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Self-Portrait, 1848 (Hills no. 46.0.1)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1025 (accessed on May 6, 2024).