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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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Photo: Courtesy of Sotheby’s, Inc. © 2020
12.0 Interiors—No or Slight Figures

Johnson often painted interiors without people, no doubt studies from real life. He used such oil studies to provide context for genre scenes. Objects resting on mantles, such as ceramic parrots or earthenware jars, frequently reappear, rearranged in interior genre scenes. —PH

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Hills no. 12.0.1
Baur no. 125 / 1907 Sale no. 115
The New England Kitchen
Alternate titles: Interior of Home; New England Kitchen
c.1863
Oil on paper board
17 x 21 3/4 in. (43.2 x 55.2 cm)
Initialed lower right: E.J.
Private collection
Description / Remarks

The setting of this painting is similar to that of The Chimney Corner, 1863, and its version, The Lord Is My Shepherd, c. 1862–63.

Kende Galleries sale catalogue, January 7, 1943: "Dimly lighted interior of a low-ceilinged room. There is a large fireplace with the fire still burning and at the left a table."

1907 Estate Sale info
No. 115: "In a broad, open fireplace, with a heavy timber lintel, a small iron kettle hangs from a trammel over a fire built in a small stone enclosure on a hearth. In a small sunlit window on the left, high up in the wall, stands a bottle with geraniums and various articles of domestic use, and on the fireplace beam is a broken mirror, a bottle or two and other characteristic objects. The old wooden floor is split and broken, and the stone hearth itself has crumbled with the heat. An empty chair, with broken back and low arms, stands in the corner of the fireplace near the small fire."
"Signed at the lower right, E. J.
Height, 17 inches; length, 21 ½ inches."
[Annotation: “85.00 / Cogswell”]
Provenance
Eastman Johnson estate/Mrs. Eastman Johnson, New York, 1906 (by bequest)
[The artist's estate sale, American Art Association, New York, February 26–27, 1907, no. 115 (as The New England Kitchen)]
William Browne Cogswell, Syracuse, New York, husband of the artist's niece, Mary Naomi Johnson Cogswell (daughter of the artist's brother Reuben), February 27, 1907 (by purchase)
Cora Browning Cogswell, his wife, 1921 (by bequest)
Florence Pearl and Elizabeth C. Browning, Syracuse, New York, 1936 (by bequest)
[Kende Galleries, New York, January 7, 1943, Kende Galleries, New York, January 7, 1943, Paintings: American, English and European Schools from the Collection of the Late Leon Hirsch, Property of Mrs. Frederic J. Merrick, and from other sources, no. 20 (as New England Kitchen)]
Private collection, East Haddam, Connecticut
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, until 1969
Mr. and Mrs. R. Philip Hanes, Jr., January 28, 1969 until at least 1999 (by purchase)
Sotheby's, December 2, 2010, lot 57 (as New England Kitchen); did not sell
[Sotheby's, April 5, 2012, Sale 8828, Property from the Collection of Philip and Charlotte Hanes, lot 45 (as New England Kitchen)]
Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, April 5, 2012
Private collection, after April 5, 2012 (by purchase)
Exhibitions
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, as New England Kitchen.
1940 Douthitt Gallery
The Douthitt Gallery, New York, Eastman Johnson: The Keystone Artist, March 28–April 30, 1940. (Douthitt Gallery 1940), no. 14, as The New England Kitchen.
1972 Whitney Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition, March 28–May 14, 1972. (Exhibition catalogue: Hills 1972a), no. 41, b/w illus., p. 37, as New England Kitchen. Traveled to: The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, June 7–July 22, 1972; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, August 15–September 30, 1972; Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, October 20–December 3, 1972.
References
AAA 1907b
Catalogue of Finished Pictures, Studies, and Drawings by the Late Eastman Johnson, N.A. New York: American Art Association, February 1907. Sale catalogue, n.p., no. 115, as The New England Kitchen.
Kennedy Galleries 1920
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Charcoal Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1920. Exhibition catalogue (1920 Kennedy Galleries), p. 13, addendum “Paintings by Eastman Johnson" [possibly, as New England Kitchen].
Baur 1940
Baur, John I. H. An American Genre Painter: Eastman Johnson, 1824–1906. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, 1940. Exhibition catalogue (1939 Brooklyn Museum), no. 125, p. 65, as The New England Kitchen.
Kende Galleries 1943
Paintings: American, English and European Schools from the Collection of the Late Leon Hirsch, Property of Mrs. Frederic J. Merrick, and from Other Sources. New York: Kende Galleries, January 7, 1943. Sale catalogue, p. 18, no. 20, illus., as New England Kitchen, "Signed at lower right, E. J. Canvas: 21 x 26 inches," [Note that although the support and dimensions do not match those of this painting, the description and the illustration printed in the catalogue do.]
Crosby 1944
Crosby, Everett U. Eastman Johnson at Nantucket: His Paintings and Sketches of Nantucket People and Scenes. Nantucket, MA, 1944, C.58; p. 19.
Hills 1972a
Hills, Patricia. Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1972. Exhibition catalogue (1972 Whitney Museum); (1972 Whitney Museum), p. 37; no. 41, illus., as New England Kitchen.
Carbone and Hills 1999
Carbone, Teresa A., and Patricia Hills. Eastman Johnson: Painting America. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications, 1999. Exhibition catalogue (1999 Brooklyn Museum), p. 170, fig. 71, as The New England Kitchen.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1970 or 1971; 2012-03-30
Examination notes: 2012-03-30: Hanging from board over fireplace: keys, a bottle?, a glass hanging upside down, shard of mirror, ladle. Some touch-up near window and in the embers. Blue highlights. A pot hanging over embers. Washboard. Surface strange, oil (on paper?) on board. ["on board" appears to be crossed out.]
Record last updated July 28, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "The New England Kitchen, c.1863 (Hills no. 12.0.1)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=154 (accessed on April 25, 2024).