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

Catalogue Entry

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[ 27.0 Literary/Historical ]info
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27.0 Literary/Historical

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

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Hills no. 27.0.11
The Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln
1868
Oil
[dimensions unknown]
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson 1868
Present whereabouts unknown
Description / Remarks

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."

Provenance
Louis Prang, New York, 1868
[Leavitt Art Rooms, New York, December 8, 1875, Oil and Water-Color Paintings, from the Collection of Louis Prang, Esq., Boston, no. 139 (as The Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln)]
Present whereabouts unknown
References
Rural New Yorker 1868
"Literature and Art: Literary and Art Items." Rural New Yorker (Rochester, NY, and New York) 19, no. 29 (July 18, 1868), p. 233: "Eastman Johnson has sold to Mr. Prang his original of the 'Boyhood of Lincoln'".
Rural New Yorker 1869a
"Art and Artists." Moore's Rural New-Yorker (New York and Rochester, N.Y.), January 16, 1869, p. 50.
Leavitt Art Rooms 1875
Oil and Water-Color Paintings, from the Collection of Louis Prang, Esq, Boston. New York: Leavitt Art Rooms, December 7–8, 1875. Sale catalogue, n.p., as The Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln, asterisked as having been "chromo-lithographed by the celebrated establishment of Messrs. L. Prang & Co, Boston".
Florer c. 1917
Florer, Alice, and Orlin H. Venner. Picture Studies: Studies of One Hundred Five of the World's Famous Pictures Best Adapted for Use in the Schools and for Schoolroom Decoration. Lincoln; Chicago; Dallas: The University Publishing Company, c. 1917, n.p. (63–65), illus. (chromolithograph, as Boyhood of Lincoln).
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Lincoln, Abraham
Biography:

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). Sixteenth president of the United States, 1861–1865.

Lincoln, Abraham
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Keywords
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Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C., LC-DIG-ppmsca-18446 (digital file from original item)
The Boyhood of Lincoln—An Evening in the Log Hut [chromolithograph by W. Harring (William Harring Von Ammon); published by L. Prang & Co.],The Boyhood of Lincoln—An Evening in the Log Hut [chromolithograph by W. Harring (William Harring Von Ammon); published by L. Prang & Co.]
c.1868
Chromolithograph
21 3/8 x 17 3/16 in. (54.3 x 43.6 cm)
Inscribed in plate, lower left: E. Johnson 1868; lower right: W. Harring, [illeg.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (99405503)

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.

Record last updated May 18, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "The Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln, 1868 (Hills no. 27.0.11)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1773 (accessed on April 25, 2024).