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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
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Photo: Thomas Colville Fine Art, LLC
Overall
Photo: Patricia Hills
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
⊠
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
Provenance
[Artists' Fund Society, New York, 1867, no. 71 (as Crossing the Brook)]
Benjamin Rush Cowen, Washington, D.C., c. 1870s
Mrs. William Wyatt Breckinridge, granddaughter of the above, Montrose, Alabama, by 1954 (by descent)
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, until November 1964
A. T. Barnard, November 1964 (by purchase)
Mrs. J. A. Barnard, New York, until 1972
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, 1972
Private collection, New York
Babcock Galleries, New York
Private collection, Massachusetts (acquired from the above)
Private collection (by descent)
[Bonhams, May 24, 2017, Sale 23937, American Art, lot 63, Property from a Prominent New England Collection (as Crossing a Stream (Pig-a-Back))]
Thomas Colville Fine Art, Guilford, Connecticut, May 24, 2017
Exhibitions
1867 Artists' Fund Society
Artists' Fund Society, New York, February 1867, no. 71, as Crossing the Brook.1871b Century Association
Century Association, New York, April 6, 1871, no. 25, as Crossing the Stream.1871c Century Association
Century Association, New York, May 6, 1871, no. 15, as Girl with a Little Boy on Her Back. Crossing on a River.1973 Kennedy Galleries
Kennedy Galleries, New York, American Masters: 18th and 19th Centuries, March 14–April 7, 1973, no. 27, illus., p. 30, as Crossing the Brook.1981–82 Kennedy Galleries
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.2010 Babcock Galleries
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.2013 Driscoll Babcock Galleries
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 1867
Tuckerman, Henry T. Book of the American Artists: American Artist Life. New York: G. P. Putnam & Son, 1867, p. 471, as Crossing a Stream.Henry H. Leeds & Miner 1867b
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 and Hutton 1879
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 and Hutton 1884
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.Kennedy Galleries 1973
American Masters: 18th and 19th Centuries. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1973, n.p; no. 27 illus.Hills 1977
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.Kennedy Galleries 1981a
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.Kennedy Galleries 1981c
Profiles of American Artists Represented by Kennedy Galleries. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1981, p. 83, as Crossing the Brook.Douglass 1999
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
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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 April 29, 2024).