Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
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14.0 Lily Pond Scenes
Johnson did few landscapes. Of those he did, he seems to have never sent them out on exhibition. Some of them are intimate views of his trips into nature, with sunlight falling on paths that lead through woodland trees or a haze on quiet lakes. None of them are dramatic views of mountains or rivers. He made several of the villages of Nantucket. Some seem to be instances where he painted the backyards of friends or family with a focus on the compositions of angles of planks, stairs, and siding. —PH
Hills no. 14.0.3
Crossing a Stream
Alternate titles: Crossing a Stream (Pig-a-Back); Crossing the Brook; Crossing the Stream; Girl with a Little Boy on Her Back. Crossing on a River; Pig-A-Back
1866
Oil on canvas on board
21 1/8 x 17 in. (53.7 x 43.2 cm)
Signed and dated lower right, faintly: E. Johnson 1866
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Provenance
Mrs. William Wyatt Breckinridge, granddaughter of the above, Montrose, Alabama, by 1954 (by descent)
Private collection, New York
Private collection, Massachusetts (acquired from the above)
Private collection (by descent)
Exhibitions
Artists' Fund Society, New York, February 1867, no. 71, as Crossing the Brook.
Century Association, New York, April 6, 1871, no. 25, as Crossing the Stream.
Century Association, New York, May 6, 1871, no. 15, as Girl with a Little Boy on Her Back. Crossing on a River.
Kennedy Galleries, New York, American Masters: 18th and 19th Centuries, March 14–April 7, 1973, no. 27, illus., p. 30, as Crossing the Brook.
Kennedy Galleries, New York, Art of America: Selected Painting and Sculpture, 1770–1981, November 11, 1981–January 15, 1982. (Kennedy Galleries 1981a), no. 4, as Crossing a Stream.
Babcock Galleries, New York, From Light of Distant Skies: A Selection of 19th-Century American Paintings, April 8–August 11, 2010, no. 8, as Crossing the Stream.
Driscoll Babcock Galleries, New York, Refuge and Remembrance: Landscape Painting in the Civil War Era, May 16–June 22, 2013, as Crossing the Stream.
References
Tuckerman, Henry T. Book of the American Artists: American Artist Life. New York: G. P. Putnam & Son, 1867, p. 471, as Crossing a Stream.
Catalogue of the Valuable Collection of Oil Paintings Formerly the Private Collection of W. P. Wright. New York: Henry H. Leeds & Miner, March 18, 1867. Sale catalogue, p. 16, no. 121 [likely, as Crossing the Brook, withdrawn].
Waters, Clara Erskine Clement, and Laurence Hutton. Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works. Vol. II. Boston: Houghton, Osgood, & Co., 1879, p. 11, as Crossing a Stream.
Waters, Clara Erskine Clement, and Laurence Hutton. Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works. Vol. II. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1884, p. 11, as Crossing a Stream.
American Masters: 18th and 19th Centuries. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1973, n.p; no. 27 illus.
Hills, Patricia. The Genre Paintings of Eastman Johnson: The Sources and Development of His Style and Themes. New York: Garland Publishing, 1977, p. 135, as Pig-A-Back.
Art of America: Selected Painting and Sculptures, 1770–1981. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1981. Exhibition catalogue (1981–82 Kennedy Galleries), p. 4, no. 4, as Crossing a Stream.
Profiles of American Artists Represented by Kennedy Galleries. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1981, p. 83, as Crossing the Brook.
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. 260, as Crossing the Brook.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 2017-04-05
Examination notes: See opinion letter
Hills opinion letter: April 11, 2017 view »
Record last updated November 22, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Crossing a Stream, 1866 (Hills no. 14.0.3)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=165 (accessed on March 28, 2024).