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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Catalogue Entry
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Photo: Courtesy of Sotheby’s, Inc. © 2020
[ 01.0 Euro Genre ]
⊠
01.0 Euro Genre
By the summer of 1849, Johnson resolved to go to Europe with his friend George Hall. Although he reputedly was earning a good living with his portrait drawings, figure and genre painting attracted him and first-rate instruction in these fields was not available in the United States. Moreover, both artists realized the importance of studying the European masters at first hand. Hall and Johnson were coaxed into choosing Düsseldorf by the American Art-Union, the most important organ of artistic patronage in America in the 1840s. To raise funds for his travel, Johnson sold two drawings to the AAU and was also assured by Andrew Warner of the AAU that the organization would accept future works by him. Johnson and Hall sailed from New York on August 14, 1849, for Europe. He took classes at the Royal Academy in Düsseldorf, but records of his exact attendance are not known. He felt skilled enough by October 1950 to send two oils to the NAD for sale. In a letter accompanying the shipment he admitted he was sending the pictures “rather earlier in my practice of oils than I should otherwise do.” The two pictures, Peasants on the Rhine and The Junior Partner are long since lost. The majority of his genre paintings were done in the Netherlands, after he moved to the Hague in 1851
[Adapted from Hills, The Genre Painting of Eastman Johnson, pp. 27–32]. —PH
Hills no. 1.0.11
Baur no. 4 / 1907 Sale no. 74
The Counterfeiters
Alternate title: The Counterfiters [sic]
c.1851–55
Locale: The Hague, the Netherlands
Oil on canvas
29 3/4 x 37 in. (75.6 x 94 cm) (Baur)
Neither signed nor dated
1907 Estate Sale
No. 74: "Three men are engaged in manufacturing false coin in a rude interior. One of them holds a pair of jeweller’s scales to the light, and his two companions, seated at a table, are finishing the pieces. On the right of the group, which is strongly lighted from a window high up on the left, is a furnace with a crucible standing on the hot coals, and nearby is a sheet spread upon the ground to hold the money as it is finished. A woman listens at the door on the left, and in the background, seen through a partly draped opening, an old hag is clutching what is apparently a box full of money."
"Height, 29 ½ inches; length, 36 inches"
[Annotation: “115.00 W. B. Cogswell”]
"Height, 29 ½ inches; length, 36 inches"
[Annotation: “115.00 W. B. Cogswell”]
Provenance
Eastman Johnson estate/Mrs. Eastman Johnson, New York, 1906 (by bequest)
[The artist's estate sale, American Art Association, New York, February 26–27, 1907, no. 74 (as The Counterfeiters)]
William Browne Cogswell, Syracuse, New York, husband of the artist's niece, Mary Naomi Johnson Cogswell (daughter of the artist's brother Reuben), February 26, 1907 (by purchase)
Cora Browning Cogswell, his wife, 1921 (by bequest)
Florence Pearl and Elizabeth C. Browning, Syracuse, New York, her sisters, 1936 (by bequest)
Grand Central Art Galleries, New York
IBM Corporation, 1946
Sotheby's, May 25, 1995, lot 166 (as The Counterfeiters); did not sell
[Sotheby's, March 14, 1996, Sale 6817, Property of the IBM International Foundation, lot 49 (as The Counterfeiters)]
American Museum of Western Art, Denver, Colorado, March 14, 1996 (by purchase)
Exhibitions
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, as The Counterfiters [sic].1939 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, An American Genre Painter: Eastman Johnson, 1824–1906, January 18, 1939–February 26, 1940. (Exhibition catalogue: Baur 1940), no. 4, as The Counterfeiters.1946 M. Knoedler & Co.
M. Knoedler & Co, New York, Paintings and Drawings by Eastman Johnson, January 7–26, 1946. (Exhibition catalogue: M. Knoedler & Co. 1946), no. 12, as The Counterfeiters. Traveled to: The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, March 1946 (California Palace 1946).1969 IBM Gallery
IBM, IBM Gallery, New York, American Painters of the 19th Century, November 3–22, 1969. (Exhibition catalogue: McLanathan 1969).1972 Whitney Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition, March 28–May 14, 1972. (Exhibition catalogue: Hills 1972a), no. 10, b/w illus., p. 16, as The Counterfeiters. Traveled to: The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, June 7–July 22, 1972; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, August 15–September 30, 1972; Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, October 20–December 3, 1972.References
AAA 1907b
Catalogue of Finished Pictures, Studies, and Drawings by the Late Eastman Johnson, N.A. New York: American Art Association, February 1907. Sale catalogue, n.p., no. 74, as The Counterfeiters.American Art News 1907b
"Eastman Johnson Sale." American Art News 5, no. 20 (March 2, 1907).Baur 1940
Baur, John I. H. An American Genre Painter: Eastman Johnson, 1824–1906. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, 1940. Exhibition catalogue (1939 Brooklyn Museum), p. 60, no. 4, as The Counterfeiters.Hills 1972a
Hills, Patricia. Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1972. Exhibition catalogue (1972 Whitney Museum), p. 16; no. 10 illus.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, p. 266, as The Counterfiters [sic].Wallach 2022
Wallach, Alan. "Eastman Johnson's Jews." Perspectives on Eastman Johnson, National Academy of Design (New York), February 15, 2022, as The Counterfeiters.Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1971-07-23; 1995-03-09
Examination notes: 1971-07-23: Dark background behind two men's heads. A white cloth (rug?) is on the floor in the sunlight. Man looks up in direction of light. Woman in shadow at left. Cadaverous face emerges at window. Seems to be a courtyard. Fire and coals on stand at right. Very white sketchy touches on standing man's sleeves. Proportions are strange—man front with pink coat. His face is painted smoothly whereas man holding scales has a painterly face.
1995-03-09: Older man holds scales. Hills sees everything she saw before. Shoe forms (?) on the table. 2 man at table—one at right is about to clip something with pliers. Forehead of man on right: a patchwork of red, yellow, pink colors. Grey green—hands good. Deft highlight along pliers. Peach coat—terrific. Center man—highlights on nose and eyeballs. Old man—sketchy white strokes on folds of shirt. Left woman—hand to ear. Pencil lines: back edge of table; along edge of green sleeve and contour of knuckle of right man.
1995-03-09: Older man holds scales. Hills sees everything she saw before. Shoe forms (?) on the table. 2 man at table—one at right is about to clip something with pliers. Forehead of man on right: a patchwork of red, yellow, pink colors. Grey green—hands good. Deft highlight along pliers. Peach coat—terrific. Center man—highlights on nose and eyeballs. Old man—sketchy white strokes on folds of shirt. Left woman—hand to ear. Pencil lines: back edge of table; along edge of green sleeve and contour of knuckle of right man.
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Record last updated March 30, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "The Counterfeiters, c.1851–55 (Hills no. 1.0.11)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=13 (accessed on April 25, 2024).