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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, MA, Project Manager

Catalogue Entry

[ 15.0 Landscapes, 1858–1879 ]info
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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. 15.0.9
Baur no. 73 / 1907 Sale no. 91
"When Woods Were Green"
Alternate title: When Woods Were Green
c.1860–79
Oil on academy board
15 3/4 x 18 1/2 in. (40 x 47 cm)
Initialed lower left: E. J.; lower right: E. J.
Present whereabouts unknown
Description / Remarks

MacGibeny, 2021: Both inscriptions (lower left and lower right) are present in the c. 1940 image of this painting. Note the discrepancy with the 1907 Estate Sale catalogue, which records only one inscription at lower left. It is possible that the lower right inscription was added after the 1907 Estate Sale.

The phrase "when woods were green" appears in the opening line of Longfellow's poem "Voices of the Night," 1839:

"Pleasant it was, when woods were green
And winds were soft and low…"

1907 Estate Sale info
No. 91: "The study of a remote nook in a large forest showing a great ledge of rock in the foreground, at the foot of which is a small portion of a well-worn path. A large tree grows on the summit of a rocky hillock, and two others near the path on the left; and beyond the ledge, which is in shadow, is the sunlit forest with a tangle of trunks, branches and foliage."
"Signed at the lower left, E. J.
Height, 15 ½ inches; length, 19 ½ inches."
[Annotation: “35.00 / Cogswell”]
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. 91 (as "When Woods Were Green")]
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, her sisters, 1936 (by bequest)
Douthitt Galleries, New York, by May 28, 1941
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, as When Woods Were Green.
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), as When Woods Were Green.
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. 91, as "When Woods Were Green".
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. 49, 63, no. 73, as When Woods Were Green.
Record last updated March 22, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. ""When Woods Were Green", c.1860–79 (Hills no. 15.0.9)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=211 (accessed on May 6, 2024).