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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: New York State Office of General Services
Grover Cleveland, 1885 (Hills no. 31.1.33). Installation
Installation
Photo: New York State Office of General Services
Grover Cleveland, 1885 (Hills no. 31.1.33). Inscription
Inscription
Photo: New York State Office of General Services
Grover Cleveland, 1885 (Hills no. 31.1.33). Plate on frame
Plate on frame
Photo: New York State Office of General Services
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. 31.1.33
Grover Cleveland
Albany Institute of History & Art title: Grover Cleveland (1837–1908)
1885
Oil on canvas
58 1/8 x 40 in. (147.6 x 101.6 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson/1885
Description / Remarks

MacGibeny, 2021: This portrait has been hanging in the Senate Lobby of the New York State Capitol at least since 2000.

Provenance
The Corporation of the City of Albany, New York, 1885 (by commission)
Placed on permanent deposit with the Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, New York, 1971
Exhibitions
1885c Century Association
Century Association, New York, June 6, 1885, [possibly, as Grover Cleveland (1837–1908)].
References
City of Albany 1885
Proceedings of the Common Council Chamber and Chamber Report. Albany, NY: City of Albany, 1885.
Walton 1906
Walton, William. "Eastman Johnson, Painter." Scribner's Magazine 40 (September 1906), p. 273.
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 Grover Cleveland].
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Cleveland, Stephen Grover
Biography:

Stephen Grover Cleveland (1837–1908). Twenty-second president of the United States, 1885–1889, and twenty-fourth president of the United States, 1893–1897.

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

Cleveland, Stephen Grover
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Keywords
Record last updated March 22, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Grover Cleveland, 1885 (Hills no. 31.1.33)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1343 (accessed on March 29, 2024).