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
Hills, 2022: Although John I. H. Baur owned and annotated a copy of the catalogue of Johnson's 1907 Estate Sale, he did not include this work in his own 1940 catalogue listing; he must have obtained it after publication.
Nantucket Historical Association website, accessed July 6, 2021: "View of man sitting alone near a fireplace smoking a clay pipe. The man wears a brown vest, pants, shoes, green socks, and white shirt. A window at left looks out onto an open landscape. Geometric hooked rug on the floor. Flower arrangement on the fireplace mantel.
"This picture depicts a farmhouse interior in Maine. The same room appears in Johnson's 1865 canvas 'Interior of a Farmhouse in Maine,' also known as 'Woman in an Interior, Knitting.'"
"Signed at the lower right, E. J.
Height, 15 inches; length, 19 ½ inches"
[Annotation: “40.00”]
- Subject matter: