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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: Century Association, New York
[ 40.0 Literary/Historical Drawings ]info
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40.0 Literary/Historical Drawings

In addition to his scenes of everyday life and portraits of people, Johnson created images of historical events and figures from works of literature, drama, and music. For example, “Carry Me, and I’ll Drum You Through” was inspired by an incident from the Battle of Antietam, 1862, and Membership Vote at the Union League Club, May 11, 1876, recorded a contentious meeting in which he participated much later. His Marguerite, Cosette, and Minnehaha are personifications of fictional heroines from novels and poetry. His Boy Lincoln represents both the future United States president and the archetypical American youth who, with determination and hard work, could succeed. Johnson rendered several of these imaginative images as both paintings and drawings. These literary and historical works evince both his personal interest in those subjects and his awareness of their popularity with the broad public. —AM

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Hills no. 40.0.6
Indian Girl
1864, October 3
Pencil, charcoal, and pastel on paper
13 x 10 3/4 in. (33 x 27.3 cm) (sight)
Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson/Oct.3.64.
Century Association, New York, Gift of the heirs of Miss Julia Sands Bryant, 1908 (1908.5.21)
This catalogue raisonné strives to reproduce the available historical information, as it was written in the period, while acknowledging that readers today may find many of these terms objectionable or racist. Please see the Racist Language/Negative Stereotypes Statement »
Description / Remarks

MacGibeny, 2022: Johnson made his first version of this drawing, Sitting Ojibwe Woman, in 1857 when he was depicting the Ojibwe people in Minnesota Territory. This version (Indian Girl) and a third version, Minnehaha, were done years later, likely inspired by the figure of Minnehaha in the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem "The Song of Hiawatha," 1855. This drawing would have been a fitting gift for William Cullen Bryant, also a poet.

The Evening Post, New York, January 16, 1865: "The sketches painted by artist-members of the Century Club, for presentation to Mr. [William Cullen] Bryant on his seventieth birthday, were exhibited at the rooms of the Club on Saturday…Eastman Johnson, a crayon drawing, representing an Indian maiden seated on the earth in a sorrowful attitude before what seems a solitary grave…"

Provenance
William Cullen Bryant, 1864–1868 (by gift)
Julia Sands Bryant, his daughter (by descent)
Heirs of Julia Sands Bryant (by descent)
Century Association, New York, 1908 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1865 Century Association
Century Association, New York, January 12, 1865.
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, as Indian Girl (sketch).
1976 Rochester Memorial Art Gallery
Rochester Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York, 1976–77.
1992 N-YHS
New-York Historical Society, New York, The Century Association: American Works and Masterworks, 1992–January 3, 1993.
References
Evening Post 1865a
"The Bryant Album." The Evening Post (New York), January 16, 1865, p. 12, "The sketches painted by artist-members of the Century Club, for presentation to Mr. [William Cullen] Bryant on his seventieth birthday, were exhibited at the rooms of the Club on Saturday…Eastman Johnson, a crayon drawing, representing an Indian maiden seated on the earth in a sorrowful attitude before what seems a solitary grave…"
Conradt-Eberlin 1907
Conradt-Eberlin, Viggo. Catalogue of Paintings and Other Art Objects Belonging to the Century Association. 1907. Century Association Foundation Archives, New York. Handwritten list, no. 402.
Lay and Bolton 1943
Lay, Charles Downing, and Theodore Bolton. Works of Art Silver and Furniture Belonging to the Century Association. New York: Century Association, 1943, pp. 25, 45.
Mayor and Davis 1977
Mayor, A. Hyatt, and Mark Davis. American Art at the Century. New York: Century Association, 1977, pp. 143, 160.
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. 40.
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Keywords
Record last updated March 25, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Indian Girl, 1864, October 3 (Hills no. 40.0.6)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1600 (accessed on May 16, 2024).