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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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09.4 Black Groups

During the 1860s Johnson painted Black men, women, and children that bestow on them dignity, intelligence, and grace. Many in his family, including his sister Harriet May and her husband Reverend Joseph May were ardent abolitionists. To Johnson, Blacks were not subjects to be ridiculed or satirized.

Note that paintings of Black women and their babies have been placed within the Mother and Child theme. Negro Life at the South and its variations have been placed in a separate category because of its historic significance as Johnson’s chef-d’oeuvre. —PH

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Hills no. 9.4.3
Mating
Alternate title: Doux Propos (Sweet Talk)
c.1860–67
Oil
[dimensions unknown]
Description / Remarks

Hills, 2021: The categorization of this painting in the theme 9.4 Black Groups is tentative; it is possible that this version of the painting depicts a white couple. It seems more likely that it is a Black couple because the related paintings that include the doves depict Black couples.

Henry T. Tuckerman, Book of the American Artists: American Artist Life, 1867: "One of [Johnson's] most naive conceptions is Mating. On the low roof of a farm-house a flock of pigeons are billing and cooing, strutting and puffing, every eye and feather kindled with amorous vitality—so natural and real as alone to make the picture a gem to the naturalist; while leaning against the door-post below is a buxom girl, whose air and expression, attitude and eye, are just as full of the 'hopes and fears that kindle hope' as those of the doves, while her rustic lover in shirt-sleeves, absently whittling a stick, does his courting in a like spirit of bashful desire. Altogether the story is told with inimitable truth and nature."

Provenance
John A. Dix, New York, by 1864 until at least 1867
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1864 Maryland State Fair
Maryland State Fair, Baltimore, April 1864. (Exhibition catalogue: Maryland State Fair 1864), no. 66, as Mating, owner Maj. Gen. Dix, New York.
1867 Exposition Universelle
Exposition Universelle, Paris, April 1–November 3, 1867. (Exhibition catalogue: Exposition Universelle 1867), no. 47, as Doux Propos (Sweet Talk), owner John A. Dix.
References
Maryland State Fair 1864
Catalogue: Art Exhibition. Baltimore: Maryland State Fair, 1864. Exhibition catalogue (1864 Maryland State Fair), p. 5, no. 66, as Mating, owner Maj. Gen. Dix, N. York.
Exposition Universelle 1867
Catalogue Générale—Première Partie. Paris: Exposition Universelle, 1867. Exhibition catalogue (1867 Exposition Universelle), no. 47, as Doux Propos (Sweet Talk).
Tuckerman 1867
Tuckerman, Henry T. Book of the American Artists: American Artist Life. New York: G. P. Putnam & Son, 1867, pp. 470-471, as Mating.
Related work
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Keywords
Record last updated December 22, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Mating, c.1860–67 (Hills no. 9.4.3)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1415 (accessed on March 29, 2024).