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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 Sotheby’s, Inc. © 2020
[ 13.2 Maine Rustic/Farm, 1860s—Figures in Interiors ]info
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13.2 Maine Rustic/Farm, 1860s—Figures in Interiors

In the nineteenth century, attitudes towards work changed, especially in the northern states of America. Although some artists made fun of “country bumpkins,” in general, farm work and farmers began to take on greater prestige and admiration. During the 1860s, Johnson returned to his birthplace in Maine to make studies of maple sugar production and also to seek out subjects of a rural life far removed from slavery. Barn interiors and home interiors show the families of farmers husking corn, winnowing grain, of taking a smoke. Exteriors show farmers at harvest time, loggers cutting trees or simply relaxing. In choosing scenes of rural white America Johnson was following in the tradition of Francis William Edmonds, George H. Durrie, Tompkins H. Matteson, and William Sidney Mount—a tradition popularized by the prints of Currier and Ives. —PH

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Hills no. 13.2.2
Lighting His Pipe
Alternate titles: Enjoying the Pipe; Man Stoking a Pipe
c.1860
Locale: Maine
Oil on cardboard mounted on Masonite-like material
9 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. (24.8 x 19.7 cm)
Signed lower right: E. Johnson
Present whereabouts unknown
Provenance
[Artists' Fund Society, New York, December 23, 1862, no. 47 (as Lighting His Pipe)]
Kleemann Art Gallery
Mr. Ernest Rosenfeld, New York, by 1971
Richard York Gallery, New York, by 1983
[Sotheby's, May 31, 1984, lot 114]
Private collection, California, May 31, 1984 (by purchase)
[Sotheby's, December 1, 1999, lot 109 (as Lighting His Pipe)]
Private collection, December 1, 1999 (by purchase)
Sotheby's, November 30, 2005, Sale 8134, lot 147 (as Lighting His Pipe); did not sell
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1862 Artists' Fund Society
Artists' Fund Society, Gallery of the Fine Art Institute, New York, December 23, 1862, no. 47, as Lighting His Pipe, likely owner Eastman Johnson.
References
New-York Daily Tribune 1862
"City Items: Sale of Pictures." New-York Daily Tribune, December 25, 1862, p. 8, as Lighting His Pipe.
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. 260, as Lighting His Pipe.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1971-04-05; 1983-04-08; 1999-10-09
Examination notes: 1971-04-05: Red tie, red coals L.L. Red coal in pipe. Sienna brown background. Turquoise shirt. Outline on eyelids, hands. Legs are very short, stumpy, i.e. proportions off for femur.

1999-10-09: Andirons—white blue. Graphite lines on lids; on fingers; on bridge of nose. Blue grey highlights; blue-grey on upper lid; peculiar flesh smear(?) below lip. Nice red coal. Richard York Gallery: Figure size—outside of sleeve to back 5 3/8. Thin sienna? Wash as middle tone. Whites applied to darker tones. Grey blue blouse. Red scarf. Red coals in fireplace. Pencil lines on lids, along nose.

Thought of 2002-06-26: Maine?
Hills opinion letter: April 11, 1983 view »
Related work
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Keywords
Record last updated September 5, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Lighting His Pipe, c.1860 (Hills no. 13.2.2)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=132 (accessed on May 6, 2024).