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
O'Brien sale catalogue, 1902: "This early work of Eastman Johnson's discloses a woodchopper in the midst of a snow-covered forest cutting away at a large tree which has almost fallen. The sunlight streaks through the bare trunks and causes blue shadows on the ground, while the action of the man, in a brown suit and top boots, is well conveyed. With the breadth for which the artist is noted, there is yet no little detail."
2019-11-04: Sleeve is in bold sunlight so shadowed areas are painted; not just the underpainting used as the shadows. BUT in the shadowed area, e.g. under his arm, then both the dark and the midtone areas are thin, with underpainting used for the midtones. It all melds together. Face is finely done; not clear if there has been any restoration. Sunlight on boot, carefully done. Green moss on tree.
