Catalogue Entry
Johnson’s daughter, Ethel, was born in May 1870, and it is not surprising that Johnson would use her (but not exclusively) as a model for the many pictures of young girls in interiors—playing with dolls, warming their hands by a stove, reading, sleeping. Such pictures often include the same furniture, such as the prie dieu (church prayer bench or kneeler) seen in Family Cares and The Tea Party. Because they were genre paintings, not portraits, Johnson freely renders the facial features. Thus, it is not surprising that for paintings done circa 1873, the bodily types of the girls look like three-year-olds; whereas those done circa 1878, look more like eight-years-olds. —PH
Hills, 2022: John I. H. Baur likely knew this work because it was photographed at the Brooklyn Museum, where he was head of the Department of Painting and Sculpture from 1936 to 1952, but it is not included in his 1940 catalogue of Johnson's work.
- Subject matter:
- Dolls »