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Photo: Patricia Hills
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Photo: Patricia Hills
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Photo: Patricia Hills
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Photo: Patricia Hills
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Photo: Patricia Hills
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Photo: Patricia Hills
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Photo: Patricia Hills
⊠04.0 Euro Copies after European Artists
Johnson moved to The Hague in 1851. On November 20, 1851, he wrote to Andrew Warner of the American Art-Union, “I am at present . . . at the Hague, where I find I am deriving much advantage from studying the splendid works of Rembrandt & a few other of the old Dutch masters, who I find are only to be seen in Holland. I shall probably continue here a good portion of the winter" [Adapted from Hills, The Genre Painting of Eastman Johnson, pp. 40–41].
He made free copies after Rembrandt, Van Dyke, and the contemporary Belgian painter Louis Gallait. He stayed in the Netherlands until 1855 and developed a profitable career as a portrait painter. —PH
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Hills no. 4.0.5
Art and Liberty (after Louis Gallait, Art et Liberté)
Alternate titles: possibly The Fiddler; The Savoyard Fiddler; The Violin Player (Savoyard Fiddler)
c.1851
Oil on canvas
13 1/2 x 10 in. (34.3 x 25.4 cm)
Initialed lower right: E.J.
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Markings
Inscribed on verso of stretcher, lower left, upside down: 13 1/2 x 10; lower right: # 34464
Labels
Label on verso, top of stretcher: Kennedy Galleries: EASTMAN JOHNSON (1824 - 1906)/THE VIOLIN PLAYER, CIRCA 1852/(SAVOYARD FIDDLER)/oil on canvas; 13 1/2 x 10 inches/Signed lower right
Label on verso, center of stretcher: unidentified: 6. Eastman Johnson American 1824 – 1906/Savoyard Fiddler 13 1/2 x 10 TO BE ILLUSTRATED/Oil on canvas signed in Monogram lower right/Ex-Collections; Mrs. Eastman Johnson, W. B. Cogswell, The Misses F. Pearl,/& Elisabeth[sic] Browning.
Provenance
Private collection, California, by August 2017
Exhibitions
Washington Art Association, Washington, D.C., 1859. (Washington Art Association 1859), no. 174, [possibly, as
The Fiddler, owner Eastman Johnson]
.
References
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]
.
Benjamin, S. G. W. "A Representative American." The Magazine of Art (November 1882), p. 487 [possibly, as
The Wandering Fiddler]
.
Hartmann, Sadakichi. "Eastman Johnson: American Genre Painter." The International Studio (April 1908), p. 110 [possibly]
.
The Art Journal (Winter 1969/1970), advertisement
.
Maine Antique Digest (June 1993).
Carbone, Teresa A., and Patricia Hills. Eastman Johnson: Painting America. Brooklyn, NY:
Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications,
1999.
Exhibition catalogue (1999 Brooklyn Museum), p. 24, fig. 15 [as
The Violin Player]
.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1970-11-05; 2005-04-19; 2017-09-08 (at Bonhams)
Examination notes: [DATE?]: Mostly brown and umbers and creams and greys—hardly any other colors. Head averted. Brown leaves. Cream color on wall, window sill, clothes. A sense of real light from left. Very detailed. Touches of red on face. Upper Left “Maria” 1/4 inches from top—but maybe not Maria. Label says so. (?) Impasto on right—very characteristic palette knife and stiff brush. Sleeves made picturesque—more wrinkles. Couture-like impasto. Lips, cleft chin, noes, eyes are more prominent. Coral dab at end of nose and on cheeks. In the Louis Gallait painting, 1849, Coll. Royal Museum, Brussels, the grapes are more definite; in EJ more sketchy.
Record last updated March 30, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Art and Liberty (after Louis Gallait, Art et Liberté), c.1851 (Hills no. 4.0.5)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=21 (accessed on March 28, 2024).