Catalogue Entry
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
MacGibeny, 2021: Amos Richards Eno (1810–1898), a real estate investor, is the subject of a posthumous portrait painted by Johnson in 1899 and now owned by the New York State Museum. Eno's son Amos Ferdinand Eno (1836–1915), also in the real estate business, was a member of the Union League Club of New York and the Century Association with Johnson. This earlier portrait, noted as Portrait—Mr. Eno in the Century Association ledger of its March 3, 1883 exhibition, may well depict Amos Ferdinand. See the linked Century Association photograph of Amos F. Eno for his likeness in 1865, at age 55.
Amos Richards Eno (1810–1898). Real estate investor who began his career as a wholesale dry goods merchant and founded Second National Bank.
Catalogue of Portraits in the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York. New York: New York Chamber of Commerce, 1924.
Amos Ferdinand Eno (1836–1915). Son of Amos Richards Eno; worked in the real estate business like father. Member of the Union League Club of New York and the Century Association with Johnson.
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