enlarge
Photo: Courtesy the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
⊠01.0 Euro Genre
By the summer of 1849, Johnson resolved to go to Europe with his friend George Hall. Although he reputedly was earning a good living with his portrait drawings, figure and genre painting attracted him and first-rate instruction in these fields was not available in the United States. Moreover, both artists realized the importance of studying the European masters at first hand. Hall and Johnson were coaxed into choosing Düsseldorf by the American Art-Union, the most important organ of artistic patronage in America in the 1840s. To raise funds for his travel, Johnson sold two drawings to the AAU and was also assured by Andrew Warner of the AAU that the organization would accept future works by him. Johnson and Hall sailed from New York on August 14, 1849, for Europe. He took classes at the Royal Academy in Düsseldorf, but records of his exact attendance are not known. He felt skilled enough by October 1950 to send two oils to the NAD for sale. In a letter accompanying the shipment he admitted he was sending the pictures “rather earlier in my practice of oils than I should otherwise do.” The two pictures, Peasants on the Rhine and The Junior Partner are long since lost. The majority of his genre paintings were done in the Netherlands, after he moved to the Hague in 1851
[Adapted from Hills, The Genre Painting of Eastman Johnson, pp. 27–32]. —PH
View all works in this theme »
Hills no. 1.0.6
Twee Kaartspelers (Two Card Players)
Alternate titles: possibly Card Players; Sitting Pat; The Card Players; The Card Sharp
1851
Oil on canvas
18 1/2 x 22 1/2 in. (47 x 57.2 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson/1851
Private collection, San Francisco
loading
Provenance
Private collection, San Francisco, January 1973 (by purchase)
Exhibitions
Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Tentoonstelling van Schilder -en Kunstwerken van Levende Meesters (Exhibition of Painting and Artworks of Living Masters), March 3, 1852, no. 151, as
Twee Kaartspelers (Two Card Players).
National Academy of Design, New York, March 14–May 10, 1856, no. 60, [possibly, as
The Card Players], for sale
.
Boston Athenaeum, Boston, June 1856, no. 375, [possibly, as
The Card Players]
.
References
Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant,
June 15, 1852, "The Violin Player by Mr. E. Johnson (No. 152) doesn’t please us at all as far as color and tone concern; the two Cardplayers on the other hand is a piece that, and for the careful treatment of the whole, and for the naturally true expression, may be called an excellent piece. Those two heads are drawn out of real life" [translated by Erik Schoonhoven]
.
Benjamin, S. G. W. "A Representative American." The Magazine of Art (November 1882), p. 487 [possibly, as
The Card-Players]
.
Walton, William. "Eastman Johnson, Painter." Scribner's Magazine (September 1906), p. 268 [possibly, as
The Card-Players]
.
Hartmann, Sadakichi. "Eastman Johnson: American Genre Painter." The International Studio (April 1908), p. 110 [possibly]
.
Christie's London advertisement. The Connoisseur (Great Britain) (February 1972), not numbered [58], as
The Card Sharp.
Hills, Patricia. The Genre Paintings of Eastman Johnson: The Sources and Development of His Style and Themes. New York:
Garland Publishing,
1977, fig. 21
.
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, p. 259 [possibly, as
Twee Kaartspelers (Two Card Players) and/or
The Card Players]
.
loading
Record last updated March 30, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Twee Kaartspelers (Two Card Players), 1851 (Hills no. 1.0.6)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=15 (accessed on March 16, 2025).
