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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
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Photo: Courtesy of the Cooley Gallery, Old Lyme, Connecticut
Inscription
Photo: Courtesy of Kelly Williams
Verso
Photo: Courtesy of Kelly Williams
Verso label
Photo: Courtesy of Kelly Williams
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26.6 Nantucket Portraits and Types
Like many artists in the nineteenth century, Johnson often did paintings of “types” that are actually identifiable portraits. For example, the painting John F. Sylvia shows a Nantucket miller in his barn looking up from his account books to look out the window. Called at one time The Falling Market, the subject suggests a man perhaps assessing his position in the economy in the early years of the 1870s when a recession gripped the nation. —PH
Hills no. 26.6.19
John F. Sylvia
Alternate titles: John Sylvia; The Old Salt
c.1873
Oil on canvas
16 x 12 1/8 in. (40.6 x 30.8 cm)
Possibly initialed lower left [difficult to discern]
Labels
Label on verso: 290 E(ASTMAN) J(OHNSON)/The Old Salt (15 ½ x 11 ½)/Signed.
Provenance
Private collection
The Cooley Gallery, Old Lyme, Connecticut
Sylvia Antiques, Nantucket, Massachusetts
Collection of Kelly Williams and Andrew Forsyth, Nantucket, Massachusetts (by purchase)
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Sylvia, John F.
Biography:
John F. Sylvia (life dates undetermined). Nantucket farmer and miller.
Keywords
- Subject matter:
Record last updated July 29, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "John F. Sylvia, c.1873 (Hills no. 26.6.19)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1787 (accessed on May 5, 2024).