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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: Patricia Hills
Mary Devlin Booth, 1883, Christmas (Hills no. 31.3.10). Detail
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
Mary Devlin Booth, 1883, Christmas (Hills no. 31.3.10). Inscription
Inscription
Photo: Patricia Hills
[ 31.3 U.S. Portraits, Women ]info
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31.3 U.S. Portraits, Women

Johnson’s paintings of women are often his best portraits, exhibiting a range of techniques and emphasizing their intelligent faces even when enwrapped in sumptuous fabrics, such as we see in Edwina Booth. —PH

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Hills no. 31.3.10
Mary Devlin Booth
Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library title: Mary Devlin Booth (1840–1863)
Alternate titles: Mary Devlin, First Wife of Edwin Booth; Portrait of Mary Devlin Booth
1883, Christmas
Oil on canvas
24 1/4 x 20 in. (61.6 x 50.8 cm)
Initialed and dated lower left: E.J./Xmas 1883 [As in other Johnson paintings of the 1880s and 1890s, the "8"s have a flat top]
Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Manney (79.78.2)
Description / Remarks

Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library website, accessed May 14, 2014: "Bust-length portrait of woman, Mary Devlin Booth, looking over her own left shoulder (PL [proper left]), hair parted in center, with brooch at lace collar; she has long hair, pulled back from face; dark background."

Labels
Label on verso: Mrs Grossman – 12 [illeg.] 18 – Mary D. Booth”

Label on verso: My grandmother, Mary Devlin Booth – painted by Eastman Johnson – [illegible/partially missing section including at least half of a letter, which could be an E]. B. G.
Provenance
Edwin Booth
Mrs. Edwina Booth Grossman, his daughter, by 1895
Likely Edwin Booth Grossman, her son (by descent)
Private collection, Millbrook, New York [may be same as previous]
Vose Galleries, Boston, May 12, 1967
Adelson Galleries, Boston, June 15, 1967
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York
Prince A. von Battenberg
[Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York, November 17, 1977, Coll. Prince A. von Battenberg e.a. (anon. ged.)/Property of Another Owner, lot 552]
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Manney
Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1979 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1895 NAD
National Academy of Design, New York, Loan Exhibition of Portraits for the Benefit of St. John's Guild and the Orthopaedic Hospital, October 13–December 7, 1895. (NAD 1895), no. 177, as Mary Devlin, First Wife of Edwin Booth.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 2018-08-10
Examination notes: Signed LL: E. J./ Xmas 1883. (Posthumous portrait; she died 1863)
Married to Edwin Booth. She looks to our right. Smooth face; pastel-like quality, especially on neck (slight strokes). Graphite line along top li; and right of nose. Highlights on eyes. Very serene image. Brush shawl collar; indistinct cameo brooch. Hair almost blends into background, but nice chiaroscuro. Shadow of nose clearly done. Brown black background.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Booth, Mary Devlin (Mrs. Edwin Booth)
Biography:

Mary Devlin Booth (1840–1863). Actress. Wife of Edwin Booth (m. 1860). Booth, himself portrayed several times by Johnson, commissioned the artist to paint her portrait twenty years after her death.

Keywords
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Photo: The Players Foundation for Theatre Education
Mary Devlin Booth [Carle J. Blenner after Johnson]
c.1888
Oil
30 x 28 in. (76.2 x 71.1 cm)
Neither signed nor dated
Players Foundation for Theatre Education (15-800/135)

See all Period Portrait Copies by Other Artists after Johnson.

Record last updated July 29, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Mary Devlin Booth, 1883, Christmas (Hills no. 31.3.10)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1169 (accessed on April 19, 2024).