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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: Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana
[ 31.1 U.S. Portraits, Men ]info
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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
Locale: Possibly Cincinnati, Ohio
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
Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, Gift of Louise Dexter (1959-11-1)
Provenance
Edmund Dexter, Jr., Ohio and New York, 1858–1879 (by purchase from the artist)
Mr. Edmund V. Dexter and Mrs. Louise Ewing Dexter, Robles del Rio, California, by 1950 until 1959 (by descent)
Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, 1959 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1961 Krannert Art Museum
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, Dedication Exhibition, May 20–June 25, 1961.
1969 Philbrook Art Center
Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, The American Sense of Reality, March 4–25, 1969. (Exhibition catalogue: Humphrey 1969).
References
Humphrey 1969
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 and Myers 1985
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
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)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1111 (accessed on May 1, 2024).