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Photo: Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana
⊠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
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Hills no. 31.1.57
Edmund Dexter, Jr.
Alternate title: Edmund Dexter
1858, April
Oil on canvas
39 7/8 x 31 3/4 in. (101.3 x 80.6 cm) (oval)
Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson Apr-1858
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Exhibitions
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, Dedication Exhibition, May 20–June 25, 1961.
Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, The American Sense of Reality, March 4–25, 1969. (Exhibition catalogue: Humphrey 1969).
References
Humphrey, Donald G. The American Sense of Reality. Tulsa, OK:
Philbrook Art Center,
1969.
Exhibition catalogue (1969 Philbrook Art Center), p. 34, as
Edmund Dexter.
Ayres, Linda, and Jane Myers. American Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings from the Collection of Rita and Daniel Fraad. Forth Worth, TX:
Amon Carter Museum,
1985, pp. 2–5
.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Dexter, Edmund, Jr.
Biography: Edmund Dexter, Jr. (1835–1879). Cincinnati resident; son of Edmund Dexter.
Keywords
- Portrait pose:
- Portrait sitter families:
- Format:
Record last updated June 21, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Edmund Dexter, Jr., 1858, April (Hills no. 31.1.57)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1111 (accessed on February 16, 2025).