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

Catalogue Entry

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Photo: Curtis Galleries
Sugaring Off at the Camp—Fryeburg, Maine, c.1861–65 (Hills no. 13.4.4). Frame
Frame
Photo: Patricia Hills
[ 13.4 Maple Sugar Camps, 1860s—Panoramic Scenes ]info
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13.4 Maple Sugar Camps, 1860s—Panoramic Scenes

The making of maple sugar was a traditional industry for Maine people, as it still is today. Johnson specifically traveled to Maine, his birthplace, in the early spring of the early 1860s to study and watch farmers as they tapped the trees, gathered sap, and then set up camps to boil the sap down to thick, sweet maple syrup. As scholar Brian Allen has pointed out, during the Civil War years, maple syrup was a patriotic alternative to the sugar cane sugar of Southern plantations [See Allen 2004]. Allen quotes the Philadelphia physician and abolitionist Benjamin Rush, who said in 1792: “I cannot help contemplating a maple sugar tree without a species of veneration, for I behold in it a happy means of rendering commerce and slavery of African brethren in sugar islands as unnecessary” [See Allen 2004, p. 47].

The camps became hubs of dancing, flirting, and jocular humor, and included children mingling with adults. Although Johnson worked on making sketches for years, he never completed a finished version of the “larger & more pretenscious [sic] sugaring picture” that he wrote to patron John Coyle he had planned to make. —PH

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Hills no. 13.4.4
Baur no. 51 / 1907 Sale no. 138
Sugaring Off at the Camp—Fryeburg, Maine
Alternate titles: Sugaring Off at the Camp, Fryeburg; Sugaring Off at the Camp, Fryeburg, Maine; Sugaring Off: The Camp, Fryeburg, Maine
c.1861–65
Locale: Fryeburg, Maine
Oil on canvas
19 3/4 x 34 in. (50.2 x 86.4 cm)
Initialed lower left: E. J.
Myron Kunin Collection of American Art, Minneapolis, MN
Description / Remarks

Hills, 2021: The evidence for the date range of 1861–65 is a letter from Johnson to patron John Coyle dated March 13, 1864. Johnson states that he plans to do a "larger & more pretenscious" [sic] sugaring picture and is "starting for the country to make studies for a month or six weeks"; that this is his fourth annual trip to Maine to do so; and that he "hope[s] to paint it next autumn & winter."

1907 Estate Sale info
No. 138: "Many of the incidents of the sugaring off festival illustrated by careful studies which are found in this collection, are shown in this composition, particularly the story-teller, the whittler and the sly drink. As in the other sketches, the large kettle over the log fire is the focus of the composition, and a large and merry party is assembled under the great maple trees."
"Signed at the lower left, E.J.
Height, 19 1/2 inches; length, 34 inches"
[Annotation: “160.00 / Cogswell”]
Provenance
Eastman Johnson estate/Mrs. Eastman Johnson, New York, 1906 (by bequest)
[The artist's estate sale, American Art Association, New York, February 26–27, 1907, no. 138 (as Sugaring Off at the Camp - Fryeburg, Maine)]
William Browne Cogswell, Syracuse, New York, husband of the artist's niece, Mary Naomi Johnson Cogswell (daughter of the artist's brother Reuben), February 27, 1907 (by purchase)
Cora Browning Cogswell, his wife, 1921 (by bequest)
Florence Pearl and Elizabeth C. Browning, Syracuse, New York, 1936 (by bequest)
Rockport Public Library, Rockport, Maine, until 1978
[Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1978 (as Sugaring Off: The Camp, Fryeburg, Maine)]
Richard Manoogian, 1978 (by purchase)
Joan Michelman Gallery, New York, until 1983
Myron Kunin Collection of American Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota (formerly Curtis Galleries and The Regis Collection), 1983
Exhibitions
1939 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, An American Genre Painter: Eastman Johnson, 1824–1906, January 18, 1939–February 26, 1940. (Exhibition catalogue: Baur 1940), no. 51, b/w illus., Pl. XV, as Sugaring Off at the Camp, Fryeburg, Maine.
1940 Douthitt Gallery
The Douthitt Gallery, New York, Eastman Johnson: The Keystone Artist, March 28–April 30, 1940. (Douthitt Gallery 1940), no. 3, as Sugaring Off at the Camp, Fryeburg, Maine.
1999 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, Eastman Johnson: Painting America, October 29, 1999–February 6, 2000. (Exhibition catalogue: Carbone and Hills 1999), no. 29, as Sugaring Off at the Camp, Fryeburg, Maine. Traveled to: San Diego Museum of Fine Arts, San Diego, February 25–May 21, 2000; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, June 8–September 10, 2000.
References
Johnson, Eastman 1864b
Eastman Johnson letter to John Coyle, March 13, 1864, Johnson states that he plans to do a "larger & more pretenscious [sic]" sugaring picture and is "starting for the country to make studies for a month or six weeks"; that this is his fourth annual trip to Maine to do so; and that he "hope[s] to paint it next autumn & winter," quoted in Selection of Artist’s Letters 1999.
AAA 1907b
Catalogue of Finished Pictures, Studies, and Drawings by the Late Eastman Johnson, N.A. New York: American Art Association, February 1907. Sale catalogue, n.p., no. 138, as Sugaring Off at the Camp—Fryeburg, Maine.
American Art News 1907b
"Eastman Johnson Sale." American Art News 5, no. 20 (March 2, 1907).
Baur 1940
Baur, John I. H. An American Genre Painter: Eastman Johnson, 1824–1906. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, 1940. Exhibition catalogue (1939 Brooklyn Museum), no. 51, Pl. XV, as Sugaring Off at the Camp—Fryeburg, Maine.
Devere 1940
Devere, Howard. "New York Exhibition Reviews." Magazine of Art (Washington, DC) 33, no. 1 (January 1940), p. 39, illus., as Sugaring Off at the Camp, Fryeburg, Maine.
Magazine of Art 1940
The Magazine of Art (January 1940).
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. 60, no. 29, as Sugaring Off at the Camp, Fryeburg, Maine.
Selection of Artist's Letters 1999
"A Selection of the Artist's Letters." 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.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): May 16, 2019
Examination notes: One of the best of the small studies of the panorama. Lively color; sketchy brush strokes—none of the faces are delineated. Atmosphere through the trees look good.
Keywords
Record last updated November 26, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Sugaring Off at the Camp—Fryeburg, Maine, c.1861–65 (Hills no. 13.4.4)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=176 (accessed on April 23, 2024).