Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, Project Manager and Co-Author
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Photo: Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN
Mary Elizabeth Brown Rice, 1857, July (Hills no. 45.3.15). Detail
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
Mary Elizabeth Brown Rice, 1857, July (Hills no. 45.3.15). Verso
Verso
Photo: Patricia Hills
Mary Elizabeth Brown Rice, 1857, July (Hills no. 45.3.15). Verso label
Verso label
Photo: Patricia Hills
45.3 U.S. Later Portrait Drawings, Women

When Johnson returned from Europe late in 1855 and moved in with his family in Washington, D.C., he began receiving portrait commissions. On his trip to Superior, Michigan, in 1856 and 1857, he did charcoal portrait drawings of family and friends. Like the commissioned drawings done earlier, Johnson generally used charcoal (named in some records as black chalk) with touches of white, but the strong chiaroscuro is less evident for his women sitters. Many of these portraits are in pastel, which creates a softer visage. In his later professional years as a painter of oil portraits there are few portraits of women. His art commanded high prices; perhaps families were then reluctant to include their women members as portrait sitters. —PH

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Hills no. 45.3.15
Mary Elizabeth Brown Rice
1857, July
Charcoal and white chalk on paper
19 x 15 3/8 in. (48.3 x 39.1 cm) (sight)
Signed and dated lower center: E. Johnson / July 1857.
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Record last updated March 28, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Mary Elizabeth Brown Rice, 1857, July (Hills no. 45.3.15)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1132 (accessed on October 6, 2024).