Catalogue Entry
When Johnson returned to the United States, he not only painted genre paintings but he also continued to paint portraits, which gave him a steady income. After 1880 Johnson turned to portraiture almost exclusively. During the 1880s and 1890s he painted businessmen, lawyers, university presidents, and three U.S. presidents from life. At times he also painted their wives and children.
He was also commissioned to paint posthumous portraits, often from photographs. These portraits by and large do not have the sparkle and active brushwork of those done from life. It seems that the demand for portraits of business and civic leaders (and members of exclusive men’s clubs) was so high that portrait painters would often make copies of each other’s paintings to satisfy the market for such images. In many instances, it has been difficult to render opinions for such paintings. —PH
MacGibeny, 2021: Johnson's friend and fellow artist Jervis McEntee wrote in his diary on Sunday, May 4, 1873: "Saturday: Still raining. My father came over at 10 and we went up to Eastman's. He went to work to paint his head life size and stuck at it until 3 o'clock when he had to leave for the train. He made a good spirited sketch but he regretted he could not stay longer.” On July 9, 1876, McEntee wrote: "Eastman Johnson's portrait of my father arrived nicely framed and is hung in the sitting room. We are all delighted with it as a likeness and as a picture it is fine and spirited."
James Smith McEntee (1800–1887). Father of Hudson River School landscape artist Jervis McEntee, friend of Johnson and collaborator with him on the paintings Children in the Wood and Landscape with Figures.
- Portrait pose: