Catalogue Entry
Johnson’s wife, Elizabeth, no doubt turned his attention to representations of women alone—either in interiors or outside. Such women are often lost in thought and suggest sentient beings with an inner life. In my interviews with descendants of Johnson’s siblings, she is presented as an independent woman. Johnson painted her portrait in which she assumes the posture of a woman who thinks on her own (also see theme 31.3). —PH
Hills opinion letter, 2014: "This oil painting is a Nantucket scene with a pretty woman, wearing a grey dress and lying in a verdant meadow. She holds out her hand to a lamb, which is taking food from it. At her side is a porcelain cup. The meadow is sketchily painted with a few plants, perhaps goldenrod or wild asters, here and there to articulate the space. In the background to the right we see the roof of a cottage with a grey sky above the horizon…
"I believe that [this] painting was painted by the hand of Johnson for an engraver who worked for the publisher R. E. Moore of 31 Union Square, New York. The engraving, almost the same size as your painting, was issued in 1874. The main difference is that the engraver added butterflies that hover over some of the foreground plants and he articulated some of the details of the plants."
MacGibeny, 2021: The first owner of this painting, George Mortimer Pullman, and other members of the Pullman family were portrayed multiple times by Johnson.
- Subject matter
: - Sheep »
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