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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Catalogue Entry
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20.1 Boys Indoors
Young boys have been a traditional staples of genre painting. To patrons of art during the mid-nineteenth century these youths recalled memories of their own growing years in which innocence was becoming more and more modified by mischievous cunning. —PH
Hills no. 20.1.18
Baur no. 88
Child at Prayer
Alternate titles: possibly Our Father Who Art in Heaven; Child at Prayer...the ominous things that go bump in the night
c.1870–74
Oil on canvas mounted on board
36 x 27 in. (91.4 x 68.6 cm)
Signed lower right: E. Johnson; verso of canvas: E. Johnson
Description/Remarks
Hills opinion letter, 2012: "The painting includes characteristics typical of Johnson's paintings: a thin sienna underpainting, graphite (pencil) defining some of the details such as the bed post, and the averted face of the child. Moreover, the sentiment expressed--the simple piety of a child—is also characteristic of Johnson's subjects."
Provenance
Possibly Aug. F. Smith, by 1870
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)
Private collector, Seattle (by purchase)
Tintern Monastery, Oakdale, Nebraska, by 1990 (by gift)
Roughton Galleries, Dallas
Private collection (by purchase)
[Roughton Galleries, Dallas, by December 2011]
Heritage Auctions, Dallas, May 15, 2012, Session Two, Auction #5096, Signature American & European Art, lot 64214 (as Child at Prayer); did not sell
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1870 Yale School of Fine Arts
Yale School of Fine Arts, New Haven, Connecticut, 1870, no. 3, [possibly, as Our Father who art in Heaven, owner Aug. F. Smith].References
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), p. 64, no. 88, as Child at Prayer.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. 261 [possibly, as Our Father who art in Heaven].Hills Examination/Opinion
Examination date(s): 1990-06-07
Examination notes: Thinly painted. Sienna underpainting. Graphite on bedpost—sharply defining bedpost.
Keywords
- Subject matter
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Record last updated July 29, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Child at Prayer, c.1870–74 (Hills no. 20.1.18)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=219 (accessed on May 2, 2025).