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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: Reproduction in Edgar French, "An American Portrait Painter of Three Historical Epochs," World's Work (December 1906)
[ 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. 31.1.74
William Maxwell Evarts
Alternate titles: possibly Hon. William M. Evarts; possibly M. [sic] Evarts; possibly Portrait of Hon. Wm. M. Evarts; possibly Portrait of Wm. M. Evarts, Esq.; possibly W. M. Evarts; possibly William M. Evarts; possibly William M. Evarts, Esq.; Portrait of William M. Evarts
c.1885
Oil
[dimensions unknown]
Present whereabouts unknown
Provenance
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1885a Century Association
Century Association, New York, January 10, 1885, [possibly, as M. [sic] Evarts].
1885 NAD
National Academy of Design, New York, April 6–May 16, 1885. (NAD 1885), no. 452, [possibly, as Portrait of Hon. Wm. M. Evarts].
1891a Century Association
Century Association, New York, January 10, 1891, [possibly, as William M. Evarts].
1899 PAFA
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Spring 1899, no. 314, [possibly, as Hon. William M. Evarts].
1901 Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1901, no. 178, [possibly, as Portrait of William M. Evarts], as Portrait of William M. Evarts.
1901 Society of American Artists
Society of American Artists, New York, March 13–May 4, 1901. (Society of American Artists 1901), no. 325, [possibly, as Portrait of Wm. M. Evarts, Esq.].
1901a Century Association
Century Association, New York, March 2, 1901, [possibly, as William M. Evarts].
1904a Union League Club of New York
The Union League Club of New York, New York, An Exhibition of Portraits, March 10–12, 1904, [possibly, as William M. Evarts, Esq.].
References
NAD 1885
New York: National Academy of Design, 1885. Exhibition catalogue (1885 NAD), no. 452 [possibly, as Portrait of Hon. Wm. M. Evarts].
Society of American Artists 1901
Catalogue of the Twenty-Third Exhibition. New York: Society of American Artists, 1901. Exhibition catalogue (1901 Society of American Artists), p. 55, no. 325 [possibly, as Portrait of Wm. M. Evarts, Esq.].
French 1906
French, Edgar. "An American Portrait Painter of Three Historical Epochs." World's Work 13, no. 2 (December 1906), p. 8311, illus., as Portrait of William M. Evarts.
Kennedy Galleries 1920
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Charcoal Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1920. Exhibition catalogue (1920 Kennedy Galleries), p. 11, addendum "Paintings by Eastman Johnson" [possibly, as W. M. Evarts].
Douglass 1999
Douglass, Julie M. "Lifetime Exhibition History." In Eastman Johnson: Painting America, by Teresa A. Carbone and Patricia Hills. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications, 1999. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 263–66.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Evarts, William Maxwell
Biography:

William Maxwell Evarts (1818–1901). Prominent lawyer and orator who also served as Attorney General of the United States under President Andrew Johnson, 1868–1869; U.S. Secretary of State, 1877–1881; U.S. Senator to New York, 1885–1891 [Rains Galleries auction catalogue, 1936].

White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.

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Evarts, William Maxwell
Keywords
Record last updated August 17, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "William Maxwell Evarts, c.1885 (Hills no. 31.1.74)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1282 (accessed on April 26, 2024).