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

Catalogue Entry

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Photo: Gil Anderson, New Haven, Connecticut
[ 23.0 Children and Pets ]info
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23.0 Children and Pets

A traditional theme in genre painting, but also seen in children’s portraits, are children interacting with their pets. Pets, then and now, were given to children to encourage responsibility and even empathy toward other creatures. Pictures in the theme Maine Haylofts (13.7) also include children and pets. —PH

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Hills no. 23.0.12v
1907 Sale no. 40
Girl Holding Pet White Rabbit [verso of Child and Rabbits]
c.1878
Oil on board
11 1/2 x 6 5/8 in. (29.2 x 16.8 cm)
Present whereabouts unknown
Recto: Child and Rabbits, c.1878 (Hills no. 23.0.11r)
Description / Remarks

Hills, 2022: Although John I. H. Baur owned and annotated a copy of the catalogue of Johnson's 1907 Estate Sale, he did not include this work in his own 1940 catalogue listing; he must have obtained it after publication.

Markings
Inscribed upper left: figure/Snidisin [possibly—difficult to discern]
Provenance
Eastman Johnson estate/Mrs. Eastman Johnson, New York, 1906 (by bequest)
[The artist's estate sale, American Art Association, New York, February 26, 1907, no. 40 (as Child and Rabbits)]
Helen Johnston, appraiser, Orange, Connecticut
Private collection, New Haven, Connecticut (by purchase)
Private collection, by September 1983
[Christie's, December 9, 1983, Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture of the 19th and 20th Centuries, lot 22 (as Child and Rabbits)]
[Christie's, December 7, 1984, Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture of the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries, lot 74 (as Child and Rabbits)]
Present whereabouts unknown
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1983-09-13
Hills opinion letter: Child and Rabbits (painting of which this drawing is the verso), September 15, 1983 view »
Keywords
Record last updated July 25, 2023. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Girl Holding Pet White Rabbit [verso of Child and Rabbits], c.1878 (Hills no. 23.0.12v)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1592 (accessed on April 23, 2024).