Catalogue Entry

No. 122: "This little incident illustrates the working of the liquor law in a sugar camp. A large hogshead, partly buried in the snow, seems to be the secret bar of the camp, for an old man is leaning on the edge of the barrel, drinking out of a bottle, and a companion stands in front of him as if to screen him from observation. Seated on the snow is a young girl, resting on the head of the barrel, holding a clay pipe in her hand, and, resting against the edge of the snowbank, a young man holds in his hand a wooden-handled tin dipper, suggesting that he has left for a moment the sugaring off to take his turn at the bar. In the background near the camp shelter are various figures, one of them is seated and reading a fragment of the paper to a deaf old man, who leans eagerly forward to catch the words. Beyond is suggested a grove of trees, through a large opening in which is seen a range of rounded hills and a small area of wintry sky."

"Signed at the lower left, E. J.
Height, 22 inches; length, 25 inches."
[Annotation: “100.00 / Cogswell”]

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. 122 (as A Sly Drink at the Camp)]

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)

Douthitt Galleries, New York, by 1940

John Levy Galleries, New York, 1942

[Plaza Art Galleries, March 23, 1944]

Chapellier Galleries, New York, until August 3, 1945

Vose Galleries, Boston, August 3, 1945

Emily Crane Chadbourne, Stone Ridge, New York, 1952

The Art Institute of Chicago, 1953 (by gift, accession no. 1953.4); deaccessioned

[Stair Galleries, Hudson, New York, October 28, 2017, lot 160 (as American School: A Sly Drink at the Camp, Study for 'Sugaring Off')]

Private dealer, Vermont, until May 2018

Jeffrey and Douglas Gold, Bellmore, New York, May 2018 (by purchase)

Jon Sterngass and Karen Weltman, Saratoga Springs, New York, by April 2021

San Francisco Bay Exposition Co, Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, Golden Gate International Exposition, 1940. (Exhibition catalogue: S. F. Bay Exposition Co. 1940), no. 1211, as A Sly Drink at the Camp, lent by Douthitt Gallery, New York.

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.

Tuckerman, Henry T. Book of the American Artists: American Artist Life. New York: G. P. Putnam & Son, 1867, p. 630 [possibly, as A Drop on the Sly].

Library of Congress Copyright Office. Catalogue of Copyright Entries, Part 4: Engravings, Cuts, and Prints; Chromos and Lithographs; Photographs; Fine Arts; New Series. Volume 2, nos. 1–52, January–December, 1907. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1907, p. 223, no. 8044, as The Sly Drink at the Camp, copyright notice issued to Mrs. Eastman Johnson. "A man leaning on a barrel and drinking from a bottle. Another man holds his hand ready to take and conceal the bottle," Class I, no. 20705, Feb. 6, 1907. One photograph received February 6, 1907.

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. 122, as A Sly Drink at the Camp.

"Eastman Johnson Sale." American Art News 5, no. 20 (March 2, 1907), as A Sly Drink at the Camp.

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), pp. 42, 62, no. 47, as A Sly Drink at the Camp.

Devere, Howard. "New York Exhibition Reviews." Magazine of Art (Washington, DC) 33, no. 1 (January 1940), p. 38, illus., as A Sly Drink at Camp.

Eastman Johnson: The Keystone Artist. New York: Douthitt Gallery, 1940. Exhibition catalogue (1940 Douthitt Gallery), n.p., no. 5, as A Sly Drink at the Camp.

The Magazine of Art (January 1940), illus.

S. F. Bay Exposition Co. Art Official Catalog. San Francisco: The Recorder Printing & Publishing Co., 1940. Exhibition catalogue (1940 San Francisco Bay Exposition Co.), p. 127, no. 1211, as A Sly Drink at the Camp.

Exhibition of Eastman Johnson. New York: John Levy Galleries, 1942. Exhibition catalogue (1942 John Levy Galleries), n.p. (2), no. 9, as A Sly Drink in Camp.

Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1961, p. 248.

Douglass, Julie M. "Lifetime Exhibition History." 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, p. 266, as The Sly Drink at the Camp.

"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.

Allen, Brian T. Sugaring Off: The Maple Sugar Paintings of Eastman Johnson. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, in association with the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 2004. Exhibition catalogue (2004 Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute), p. 21.