Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné

Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, Project Manager and Co-Author

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Photo: Courtesy of the Cincinnati Art Museum

[ 15.0 Landscapes, 1858–1879 ]

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15.0 Landscapes, 1858–1879

Johnson did few landscapes. Of those he did, he seems never to have sent them out on exhibition. The first landscapes were done early on in his European sojourn. Upon returning to the United States he painted a few landscape scenes around Mount Vernon and also views of the settlements around Lake Superior where he traveled in 1856. Later, in the 1860s, he made intimate views on his trips into nature, probably done with men friends in the summers. The few that exist show sunlight falling on paths that lead through woodland trees or suggest a haze on quiet lakes. None of them are dramatic views of mountains or rivers. —PH

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Hills no. 15.0.4

Baur no. 86 / 1907 Sale no. 52

The Catskill Mill

Cincinnati Art Museum title: Catskill Mill

c.1860–69

Oil on paperboard

15 15/16 x 22 1/4 in. (40.5 x 56.5 cm)

Initialed lower right: E. J.

Cincinnati Art Museum, Gift of Katherine Taft Benedict (1980.48)

Description/Remarks
Markings/Labels
Provenance
Exhibition History
Bibliography
Hills Examination/Opinion
Sitter Biography
Related Work
Keywords
Works after this Work

Description/Remarks

Hills, 1971: A beautiful picture. Robin's-egg blue sky. Reddish fall foliage. Tall birch tree at left. Blue sky reflected in water. Leaves drift across very still pond.

MacGibeny, 2021: John I. H. Baur noted in An American Genre Painter: Eastman Johnson, 1824–1906, 1940, that there was a pencil sketch of a girl on the back of this painting. According to the Cincinnati Art Museum, the drawing [Studies of Young Girl] was found unattached in the backing of the painting and was given a separate accession number.

1907 Estate Sale

No. 52: "On the far side of a quiet pond, which extends across the foreground, stands a rude wooden mill with a long sloping roof. On one side is an open shed, and on the other, to the left of the mill at the corner of the dam, two slender bare trees in the edge of the water, near a number of bowlders [sic], extend their naked branches high against the sky, and on the right is a hillside covered with trees of various sorts, some of them evergreens, others in autumn foliage. Beyond the mill is a vista across a heavily wooded country to a single mountain peak in the horizon."
"Signed at the lower right, E. J.
Height, 16 inches; length, 22 inches"
[Annotation: “100.00 / W. B. Cogswell”]

Markings

Inscribed, verso, on inner frame liner, lower right: 15 7/8 x 22 1/4

Inscribed, verso, on inner frame liner, center right: 226

Inscribed, verso, on inner frame liner, upper right: (illegible)

Inscribed, verso, on outer frame liner, lower right: 15 7/8 x 22 1/4

Inscribed, verso, on outer frame liner, center right: 226

Inscribed verso, on outer frame liner, upper right: (illegible)

Inscribed, verso, on frame, lower right: X

Inscribed, verso, on frame, lower right: Wtt

Label, verso, on frame, center right: (fragment) Cogswell (…)

Label, verso, on frame, center left: 71 / Catskill Mill

Paper sticker, verso, on frame, lower left: No. 8710_(?) / PICTURE

Inscribed, verso, on frame, lower center: 9194

Label, verso, on frame, upper left: WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART / 945 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10021 / Artist Eastman Johnson / Title The Catskill Mill / Date Catalogue No. 58 / Lender Mrs. Hulbert Taft / Exhibition

Label, verso, on frame, upper right: Cincinnati Art Museum / Artist: Eastman Johnson / Title: CATSKILL MILL / Medium: oil/paper board Acc. No. 1980.48 / Credit Line: Gift of Katherine Taft Benedict

Inscribed, verso, on frame, lower left: (upside down) Catskill Mill

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. 52 (as The Catskill Mill)]

William Browne Cogswell, Syracuse, New York, husband of the artist's niece, Mary Naomi Johnson Cogswell (daughter of the artist's brother Reuben), February 26, 1907 (by purchase)

Cora Browning Cogswell, his wife, 1921 (by bequest)

Florence Pearl and Elizabeth C. Browning, Syracuse, New York, her sisters, 1936 (by bequest)

Hulbert Taft, Cincinnati, after 1940 until 1958

Eleanor Gholson Taft, Cincinnati, his wife, 1958–1979 (by descent)

Katherine Taft Benedict, 1979–1980

Cincinnati Art Museum, 1980 (by gift)

Exhibitions

1939 Brooklyn Museum

Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, An American Genre Painter: Eastman Johnson, 1824–1906, January 18, 1939–February 26, 1940. (Exhibition catalogue: Baur 1940), no. 86, pp. 21, 41, 63, as The Catskill Mill.

1972 Whitney Museum

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition, March 28–May 14, 1972. (Exhibition catalogue: Hills 1972a), no. 58, illus., p. 69, as The Catskill Mill. Traveled to: The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, June 7–July 22, 1972; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, August 15–September 30, 1972; Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, October 20–December 3, 1972.

References

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. 52, as The Catskill Mill.

American Art News 1907b

"Eastman Johnson Sale." American Art News 5, no. 20 (March 2, 1907), as The Catskill Mill.

Levy 1908

Levy, Florence N., ed. American Art Annual. New York: American Art Annual, 1908, p. 63.

Baur 1940

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. 21, 41, 63, no. 86.

Findsen 1972

Findsen, Owen. "The Rediscovery of Eastman Johnson." Cincinnati Enquirer, August 20, 1972, p. 8-I illus.

Hills 1972a

Hills, Patricia. Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1972. Exhibition catalogue (1972 Whitney Museum), p. 69, no. 58 illus., as The Catskill Mill.

Findsen 1980

Findsen, Owen. "Art Museum Celebrates with More Art." Cincinnati Enquirer, August 27, 1980, illus.

Cincinnati Art Museum Bulletin 1981

The Cincinnati Art Museum Bulletin 12, no. 20 (July 1981), pp. 20, 31 illus.

Hills Examination/Opinion

Examination date(s): 1971-06-10

Examination notes: A beautiful picture. Robin's-egg blue sky. Reddish fall foliage. Tall birch tree at left. Blue sky reflected in water. Leaves drift across very still pond.

Related work

Keywords

Subject matter:
- Catskills »

Record last updated May 23, 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 Catskill Mill, c.1860–69 (Hills no. 15.0.4)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=209 (accessed on October 13, 2024).