Catalogue Entry
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
Artists' Fund Society exhibition catalogue, 1866: "A sturdy country lad, who has been devouring the contents of the newspaper on his lap and is now sitting, Americanlike, with tilted chair and pipe in mouth, ruminating over what he has read. The picture is in Mr. Johnson's happiest vein, and the expression of the face is full of life and reality."
American Art Galleries sale catalogue, 1911: "A young Yankee farmer in shirt sleeves and low boots, with his hat on and a pipe in his mouth, is seated in a room with his chair tipped back and his shoulders against the wall, facing the spectator, a newspaper resting on his knees."
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