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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
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Photo: Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK
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17.0 First Nations Peoples at Murray Bay, Canada, 1869
Eastman Johnson married Elizabeth Williams Buckley of Troy, New York, in Troy in June 1869. In July, he painted three pictures in the tourist destination of Murray Bay (now known as La Malbaie), Quebec, Canada, suggesting that the newlyweds had traveled northwest for their honeymoon. It is significant, and indicative of Johnson's interests, that the paintings represent First Nations Peoples and their homes, rather than the people or landscapes of the resort area. —AM
Hills no. 17.0.3
Baur no. 94 / 1907 Sale no. 28
Dressing the Doll
Gilcrease Museum title: The Doll
Alternate title: Making Doll Dresses
c.1869
Locale: Murray Bay, Quebec, Canada
Oil on canvas
13 1/2 x 17 1/2 in. (34.3 x 44.5 cm)
Initialed lower left: E.J.
This catalogue raisonné strives to reproduce the available historical information, as it was written in the period, while acknowledging that readers today may find many of these terms objectionable or racist. Please see the Racist Language/Negative Stereotypes Statement »
Description / Remarks
Hills, 2021: An early twentieth-century audience that did not have tribal affiliations, such as those likely to read the 1907 Estate Sale catalogue, would have considered non-Native clothing to have been “civilized,” whereas Native clothing would have been considered “not civilized.”
1907 Estate Sale 
No. 28: "In the interior of a Canadian Indian’s hut, which is built of poles covered by pieces of birch bark, sits an Indian mother dressing a little doll for her two young daughters, who lean upon the bed nearby. They are all dressed in civilized costume, and in the foreground on the left is an ordinary cast-iron cooking stove."
"Signed at the lower left, E. J.
Height, 14 inches; length, 17 inches"
[Annotation: “90.00 / Cogswell”]
"Signed at the lower left, E. J.
Height, 14 inches; length, 17 inches"
[Annotation: “90.00 / 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. 28 (as Dressing the Doll)]
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)
Douthitt Galleries, New York, 1942
Thomas Gilcrease, Oklahoma, 1942 (by purchase)
Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1955 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1982 Thomas Gilcrease Institute
Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Between Friends: Selections from the Collections of the Amon Carter Museum and the Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, July 17–September 12, 1982.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. 28, as Dressing the Doll.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), no. 94, as Dressing the Doll.Stevens 2022
Stevens, Scott Manning. "Documenting Presence: Eastman Johnson’s Indigenous Scenes." Perspectives on Eastman Johnson, National Academy of Design (New York), March 15, 2022, as Dressing the Doll.Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 2011-07
Keywords
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- Inscription type:
Record last updated July 11, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Dressing the Doll, c.1869 (Hills no. 17.0.3)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=221 (accessed on May 7, 2024).