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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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© 1979 Christie’s Images Limited
[ 35.0 Paintings by Johnson with a Later Additional Hand ]info
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35.0 Paintings by Johnson with a Later Additional Hand

Paintings by Johnson with a Later Additional Hand are not collaborations, but tend to be heavily restored paintings. They have been overpainted since their original creation to such an extent that another hand is visible in the work. The heaviest restorations are seen in three portraits currently or formerly owned by The Brook, New York, which are believed to have been left unfinished at the time of Johnson’s death and subsequently completed by painter, printmaker, and art restorer Charles X. Harris (1854–1936).

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Hills no. 35.0.1
1907 Sale no. 142
Baron Fresca with Violin
Alternate titles: possibly Portrait of Boy with Violin; possibly The Fiddler; Baron Fresca Tuning his Violin; Boy with Fiddle; Die Vioolspeler (The Violinist); The Young Violinist
c.1851
Locale: The Netherlands
Oil on board
33 1/2 x 27 in. (85.1 x 68.6 cm)
Initialed lower right: E.J.
Present whereabouts unknown
Description / Remarks

Hills, 2022: Although John I. H. Baur owned and annotated a copy of the catalogue of Johnson's 1907 Estate Sale, he did not include this work in his own 1940 catalogue listing; he must have obtained it after publication.

Hills, 1970: Brick red sweater—rather flat. Holds violin like a banjo. Eyes left. Full red lips; Afro-style hair.

Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, Review of Exhibition of Living Masters in Rotterdam, June 15, 1852: "The Violin Player by Mr. E. Johnson (No. 152) doesn’t please us at all as far as color and tone concern; the two Cardplayers on the other hand is a piece that, for the careful treatment of the whole, and for the naturally true expression, may be called an excellent piece. Those two heads are drawn out of real life" [translated by Erik Schoonhoven].

1907 Estate Sale info
No. 142: "This study of a violinist was made in 1851, and shows the half-length figure of a young man of Southern type holding in his right hand a violin, which he is tuning with his left. The figure is life-size, the face in three-quarters view to the left, and the eyes turned in the same direction. He wears a loose brown coat over a red waistcoat, showing just around the neck a green under vest trimmed with narrow lace."
"Signed at the lower right, E. J.
Height, 38 inches; width, 27 inches."
[Annotation: “80.00”]
Markings
Plate on frame: The Young Violinist/EASTMAN JOHNSON
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. 142 (as Baron Fresca with Violin)]
William Browne Cogswell, Syracuse, New York, husband of the artist's niece, Mary Naomi Johnson Cogswell (daughter of the artist's brother Reuben)
Cora Browning Cogswell, his wife, 1921 (by bequest)
Florence Pearl and Elizabeth C. Browning, Syracuse, New York, her sisters, 1936 (by bequest)
Ira Spanierman, New York, by 1970–May 23, 1979
[Christie's, May 23, 1979, lot 75 (as The Young Violinist)]
Corporate collection, May 23, 1979 (by purchase)
Sotheby's, July 6, 1993; did not sell
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1852 Rotterdam
Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Tentoonstelling van Schilder -en Kunstwerken van Levende Meesters (Exhibition of Painting and Artworks of Living Masters), March 3, 1852, no. 152, as Die Vioolspeler (The Violinist).
1859 Washington Art Association
Washington Art Association, Washington, D.C., 1859. (Washington Art Association 1859), no. 174, [possibly, as The Fiddler, owner Eastman Johnson].
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, as Baron Fresca Tuning his Violin.
References
Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant 1852
Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, June 15, 1852, "The Violin Player by Mr. E. Johnson (No. 152) doesn’t please us at all as far as color and tone concern; the two Cardplayers on the other hand is a piece that, and for the careful treatment of the whole, and for the naturally true expression, may be called an excellent piece. Those two heads are drawn out of real life" [translated by Erik Schoonhoven].
Washington Art Association 1859
Washington Art Association. Catalogue of the Third Annual Exhibition. Washington, DC: William H. Moore, 1859. Exhibition catalogue (1859 Washington Art Association), p. 7, no. 174 [possibly, as The Fiddler, owner Eastman Johnson].
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. 142, as Baron Fresca with Violin.
Douglass 1999
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 Baron Fresca Tuning his Violin.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1970-11-04 (at Spanierman)
Examination notes: Brick red sweater—rather flat. Holds violin line a banjo. Eyes left. Full red lips, Afro-style hair. Dabbed on paint on the face. Eyes are nice. Flat violin. No blue white highlights. Surface is very reworked, by perhaps another hand.
Keywords
Record last updated April 7, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Baron Fresca with Violin, c.1851 (Hills no. 35.0.1)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=19 (accessed on May 7, 2024).