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

Catalogue Entry

[ 43.5 U.S. Early Portrait Drawings, Children and Adolescents ]info
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43.5 U.S. Early Portrait Drawings, Children and Adolescents

In his early career Johnson's portraits of children and adolescents were confined to charcoal drawings of his family members, such as Harriet. But when he moved to Boston, he began to draw other children, such as the Longfellow children, in both charcoal and pastel.

See Technical Information on Johnson's Practices for a discussion of charcoal, black chalk, crayon, and pastel. —PH

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Hills no. 43.5.1
Baur no. 323
Harriet Charles Johnson
Alternate titles: Harriet Johnson; Harriet Johnson (Mrs. May)
c.1845
Locale: Likely Washington, D.C.
Crayon heightened with white on cardboard
8 1/2 x 7 1/4 in. (21.6 x 18.4 cm) (oval)
Neither signed nor dated
Present whereabouts unknown
Description / Remarks

Hills, 2022: The date of this drawing is more likely c. 1845 than the 1841 stated by John I. H. Baur, based on its resemblance to Johnson's drawings Philip Carrigan Johnson Jr. and Harriet Johnson and Judith and Harriet Johnson, both inscribed 1845.

Baur 1940, p. 30: "According to the present owner [Sarah May Edmonds], Harriet [Johnson's sister] was born in 1833 and was eight at the time of this portrait, which dates it 1841. It is the earliest example of Johnson's work located."

Provenance
Sarah May (Mrs. Walter D.) Edmonds, New York, daughter of the sitter, sister of the artist, by 1940
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
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. 323, as Harriet Johnson.
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), pp. 30, 75, no. 323, as Harriet Johnson.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Johnson, Harriet Charles (Mrs. Joseph May)
Biography:

Harriet Charles Johnson (1833–1881). Sister of Johnson; wife of Joseph May (m. 1865). 

Johnson, Harriet Charles
Keywords
Record last updated April 3, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Harriet Charles Johnson, c.1845 (Hills no. 43.5.1)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1027 (accessed on April 29, 2024).