Catalogue Entry
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
Frick Art Reference Library Photoarchive files, Eastman Johnson, "Theodore Dwight Woolsey," b11903144, accessed May 21, 2021: "Dark brown eyes and hair. Gold spectacles. Blue-black coat, red chair, drab background."
Theodore Dwight Woolsey (1801–1889). Tenth president of Yale College, 1846–1871. Graduated Yale in 1820, became chair of Greek at Yale in 1831. After assuming the presidency, took over the department of history, political science, and international law. As president he oversaw a notable raise in standards, installation of new department chairs, increase in tuition, new university buildings, and conferral of the first PhD, among other contributions. Son of William W. Woolsey.
White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.
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