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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 the William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut
[ 31.1 U.S. Portraits, Men ]info
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31.1 U.S. Portraits, Men

When Johnson returned to the United States, he not only painted genre paintings but he also continued to paint portraits, which gave him a steady income. After 1880 Johnson turned to portraiture almost exclusively. During the 1880s and 1890s he painted businessmen, lawyers, university presidents, and three U.S. presidents from life. At times he also painted their wives and children.

He was also commissioned to paint posthumous portraits, often from photographs. These portraits by and large do not have the sparkle and active brushwork of those done from life. It seems that the demand for portraits of business and civic leaders (and members of exclusive men’s clubs) was so high that portrait painters would often make copies of each other’s paintings to satisfy the market for such images. In many instances, it has been difficult to render opinions for such paintings. —PH

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Hills no. 31.1.20
Horatio Bridge
Alternate titles: Commodore Horatio Bridge, U.S.N.; Portrait of General Bridge
c.1862
Oil on canvas
24 x 20 1/4 in. (61 x 51.4 cm)
Signed lower right in tan: E. Johnson
William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, purchased through funds of the Louise Crombie Beach Memorial Collection (1967.27)
Description / Remarks

American Art Association sale catalogue, 1929: "Paymaster General Horatio Bridge, U.S.A. Vigorous head-and-shoulders portrait in dark blue naval uniform, with gilt buttons and epaulettes, facing the observer, the head glancing to the right; finely modeled and set off by shocks of hair dressed over the ears."

Labels
Label on stretcher: Horatio Bridge by Eastman Johnson, Paymaster Genl, U.S.S., …erty of Mrs. Francis B. Austin
Provenance
Baron von Steuben
[American Art Association, New York, January 30, 1929, The Important Collection of Baron Von Steuben Relics, no. 181 (as Portrait of General Bridge)]
Mrs. Francis B. Austin
Adams Davidson Galleries, Washington, D.C., 1965
William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, 1967 (by purchase)
References
AAA 1929
The Important Collection of Baron von Steuben Relics. New York: American Art Association, January 30, 1929. Sale catalogue, p. 35, no. 181, illus., as Portrait of General Bridge, "With this picture will be given to the purchaser the Bible of the Bridge family owned by Mathew Bridge, 1672, which survives in imperfect condition".
Adams, Davidson, and Co. 1965 (c.)
Catalogue of Adams, Davidson, and Co. Washington, DC: Adams, Davidson, and Co., [c. 1965], p. 11.
Cummings 1975
Cummings, Hildegard. "Eastman Johnson and 'Horatio Bridge.'" Bulletin of the William Benson Museum of Art 1, no. 4 (1975–76), pp. 17–32.
Marks 1983
Marks, Arthur S. "Eastman Johnson's Portrait of James Cochran Dobbin." Southeastern College Art Conference Review (Little Rock, AR) 10, no. 3 (1983), p. 140, fig. 3, illus., as Horatio Bridge.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Bridge, Horatio
Biography:

Horatio Bridge (1806–1893). Bowdoin College, Class of 1825. Attained rank of commodore in 1868.

Related work
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Bridge, Horatio
Keywords
Record last updated April 6, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Horatio Bridge, c.1862 (Hills no. 31.1.20)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1197 (accessed on May 1, 2024).