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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, MA, Project Manager

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Photograph © 2021 courtesy of the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago
John Davison Rockefeller, 1894 (Hills no. 31.1.183). Inscription
Inscription
Photograph © 2021 courtesy of The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago
John Davison Rockefeller, 1894 (Hills no. 31.1.183). Plate on frame
Plate on frame
Photograph © 2021 courtesy of The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago
[ 31.1 U.S. Portraits, Men ]info
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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. 31.1.183
John Davison Rockefeller
University of Chicago title: Portrait of John D. Rockefeller
Alternate titles: possibly John D. Rockefeller; J. D. Rockefeller
1894
Oil on canvas
80 x 60 in. (203.2 x 152.4 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: E.Johnson/1894 [As in other Johnson paintings of the 1880s and 1890s, the "8" has a flat top]
The University of Chicago; Received from Friends and Trustees (CINV.365)
Description / Remarks

The University of Chicago Magazine, April 1916: "Full-length, seated figure, turned to right. Mustache. Dark business suit. Left hand rests beside books on table covered with rose velvet."

Labels
Plate on frame: JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER/1859 – 1937/FOUNDER OF THE UNIVERSITY/OF CHICAGO
Provenance
The University of Chicago, 1894 (by gift from Messrs. Ed. E. Ayer, William T. Baker, T. B. Blackstone, H. Botsford, Cyrus H. McCormick, Charles Counselman, H. H. Getty, D. G. Hamilton, H. N. Higinbotham, Charles L. Hutchinson, H. H. Kohlsaat, L. Z. Leiter, Andrew McLeish, Franklin MacVeagh, Thomas Murdoch, George A. Pillsbury, George M. Pullman, Martin A. Ryerson, Byron L. Smith, A. A. Sprague, George C. Walker)
Exhibitions
1894 Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, American Paintings and Sculpture 7th Annual, October 29–December 17, 1894, no. 176, as Portrait of John D. Rockefeller.
1895 Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Loan Exhibition of Portraits of Men, Women, and Children, January 2–15, 1895, no. 304, as J. D. Rockefeller.
1896c Century Association
Century Association, New York, May 2, 1896, [possibly, as J. D. Rockefeller].
1902 PAFA
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Spring 1902, no. 143, [possibly, as Portrait of John D. Rockefeller].
1902 Century Association
Century Association, New York, June 7, 1902, [possibly, as J. D. Rockefeller].
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, [possibly, as John D. Rockefeller].
References
Quarterly Calendar 1894
The Quarterly Calendar (University of Chicago) 3, no. 1 (May 1894), p. 21: "The portrait is an admirable one, the coloring being soft and pleasing. Mr. Rockefeller is seated by a table, his face giving a partially side view; yet looking directly at the beholder. The pose is natural and the likeness most excellent. The students, as they now gather in the chapel, will see before them the lifelike image of the honored founder."
University of Chicago Press 1903
The President's Report, July 1892–July 1902. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1903.
Universal Exposition 1904
Official Catalogue of Exhibitors. St. Louis, MO: Universal Exposition, 1904. Exhibition catalogue.
University of Chicago Magazine 1916
"The University Record." The University of Chicago Magazine (June 1916), p. 391.
University of Chicago Press 1919
The University of Chicago: An Official Guide. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1919, p. 51.
Kennedy Galleries 1920
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Charcoal Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1920. Exhibition catalogue (1920 Kennedy Galleries), p. 12, addendum “Paintings by Eastman Johnson" [possibly, as J. D. Rockefeller].
Douglass 1999
Douglass, Julie M. "Lifetime Exhibition History." In Eastman Johnson: Painting America, by Teresa A. Carbone and Patricia Hills. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications, 1999. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 265, 266.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Rockefeller, John Davison
Biography:

John Davison (“J. D.”) Rockefeller (1839–1937). Oil baron who founded Standard Oil Co. and prospered greatly thanks to his business acumen. Largely responsible for creating the University of Chicago, as well as other notable philanthropy. Son of William Avery and Elizabeth (Davison) Rockefeller. Married Laura Celestia Spelman (m. 1864); father of five children.

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

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Rockefeller, John Davison
Keywords
Record last updated July 26, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "John Davison Rockefeller, 1894 (Hills no. 31.1.183)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1420 (accessed on May 7, 2024).