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
MacGibeny, 2021: This painting is the original composition by Johnson that was used for The Boyhood of Lincoln. (An Evening in the Log Hut.), the popular chromolithograph by L. Prang & Co., c. 1868.
Moore's Rural New Yorker, "Art and Artists," January 16, 1869: "The seventy-six pictures sold at the recent artist fund [Artists' Fund Society] sale in New York brought $7,615.50. 'Our Father Who Art in Heaven,' by EASTMAN JOHNSON, brought [illegible], the highest sale. 'The Boyhood of Lincoln,' by this artist, continues to attract attention whenever on exhibition. One sees a rude but neatly kept interior, in which a boy of thirteen, 'or thereabouts,' sits studying by the light that comes from the fire in the great open fire-place. There is something in the face of the boy that characterized the face of the man. The painting has been chromolithographed, and the chromo is sold for fifteen dollars. Such a picture is good to have in a home where there are boys to work their own way in the world. It is an inspiration."
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). Sixteenth president of the United States, 1861–1865.
- Portrait pose:
Also owned by: Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine (1944.388); Harvard College Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (B.2010.2)
See all Prints after Works by Johnson.