enlarge
Photo: Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts
Overall
Photo: Patricia Hills
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
Inscription
Photo: Patricia Hills
⊠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
View all works in this theme »
Hills no. 31.1.124
Edward Hutchinson Robbins Lyman
Alternate titles: Edward Hutchinson Robert [sic] Lyman; Portrait of Mr. Ed Lyman
1885
Oil on canvas
36 x 30 in. (91.4 x 76.2 cm)
Signed and dated lower right in red paint: E. Johnson/1885
loading
Exhibitions
National Academy of Design, New York, January 1–27, 1900. (NAD 1900), no. 24, as
Portrait of Mr. Ed Lyman.
References
New York:
National Academy of Design,
1900.
Exhibition catalogue (1900 NAD), no. 24, as
Portrait of Mr. Ed Lyman.
"The Year in Review." SCheMA (June 2012), as
Edward Hutchinson Robert [sic] Lyman.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 2018-08-08
Examination notes: Bearded man, seated, facing left. Large portrait. His left hand is sketchy, scumbled paint. Face: Lots of patches of uneven paint with other paint showing through; but no impasto. Ear is vague. Hair merges with skin. Thicker line (not graphite) outlines upper lip. Flash of white paint for his collar and shirt. Eyeglasses dangling described with slight touches of paint (like Sargent would do). No highlight on eyes.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Lyman, Edward Hutchinson Robbins
Biography: Edward Hutchinson Robbins Lyman (1819–1899). Merchant banker; insurance. Son of Judge Joseph Lyman III and Anne Jean Robbins Lyman.
Related work
loading
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. "Edward Hutchinson Robbins Lyman, 1885 (Hills no. 31.1.124)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1203 (accessed on April 23, 2024).