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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: Courtesy of Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc.
A Present for Grandpa, 1871 (Hills no. 21.2.5). Black & white
Black & white
Photo: Gift of Coe Kerr Gallery, New York to FARL, 5/10/1994
21.2 Girls Outdoors

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

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Hills no. 21.2.5
A Present for Grandpa
1871
Oil on paperboard
12 x 9 in. (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
Initialed and dated lower left: E. J. 1871
Description / Remarks

Hirschl & Adler Galleries information sheet, undated: "Intent on her errand, a young girl wearing a protective shawl that drapes gracefully over her head and shoulders follows a path through the woods, on her way to deliver the wrapped parcel she holds carefully in her left hand."

Provenance
Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, by 1994
Barbara Massey Rogers, Nashville, Tennessee, and Palm Beach, Florida, by June 2006
[Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, June 2006]
Private collection, Vermont and Florida, October 2006 (by purchase)
Present whereabouts unknown
References
Hirschl & Adler Galleries n.d.
Information sheet: A Present for Grandpa. New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, n.d.
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. "A Present for Grandpa, 1871 (Hills no. 21.2.5)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1192 (accessed on March 29, 2024).