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
Anita Shafer Goodstein, Biography of a Businessman: Henry W. Sage, 1814-1897, 1962: "In the eighties Sage had his portrait painted twice, once by Daniel Huntington, once by Eastman Johnson. In each case he felt the painting lacked sufficient strength. Huntington's portrait lacked, thought Sage, 'some evidences of Soul in it,' while to Johnson Sage wrote, 'It is the unanimous verdict of my Family and friends that a few touches giving more character to the face would be a very great improvement.' Sage saw himself as a forceful, strongly defined personality, and it was that picture he was determined to leave to posterity."
Henry Williams Sage (1814–1897). Generous benefactor to Cornell University. After minimal formal college education, he became a clerk at his uncle’s store, Williams & Brothers, and later bought the business. Partnered with John McGraw and developed a successful lumber mill, the source of his wealth. Friend of Ezra Cornell, Sage was appointed Cornell Trustee in 1870 and elected president of the Board of Trustees in 1875 [Cornell, and “Death of Henry W. Sage,” New York Times, September 19, 1897, p. 13].
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