Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné

Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, MA, Project Manager

Catalogue Entry

enlarge

[ 18.0 Mother and Child ]

⊠

18.0 Mother and Child

The mother and child theme in art not only has references to Christian art but also to the realities of caregiving by women. Johnson seems to have been particularly drawn to the theme as the result of his wife’s caring for their daughter, Ethel. —PH

View all works in this theme »

Hills no. 18.0.13

Baur no. 147

Woman and Child

Alternate title: Mother and Child

c.1872

Oil on academy board

11 1/4 x 9 1/4 in. (28.6 x 23.5 cm)

Brian and Miriam O’Neill, Villanova, Pennsylvania

Description / Remarks

Hills, 2021: This is likely a portrait, perhaps of Johnson’s daughter, Ethel. Because the woman wears a bonnet in an interior scene, the adult is likely not Johnson’s wife, Elizabeth, but may have been a visiting relative. This speculation is supported by the ownership of the painting by Philip J. Wilson, Jr., a descendant of Johnson’s sister Judith Farnum.

Provenance

Philip Johnson Wilson, Jr., by 1940 (by descent)

Private collection (by descent)

[Christie's, November 30, 1999, lot 24 (as Woman and Child)]

Brian and Miriam O’Neill, Villanova, Pennsylvania, November 30, 1999 (by purchase)

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), no. 147, as Woman and Child.

Hills Examination / Opinion

Examination date(s): 1999-10-09 (at Christie's)

Examination notes: Graphite lines on bonnet sash, profile of nose, eyes and eyebrows of baby. Sweet and intimate.

Conkling, Ethel Eastman Johnson (Mrs. Alfred Ronald Conkling, later Mrs. William H. Holden)

Keywords

Portrait sitter families:
- Eastman Johnson, his wife, and his daughter »
Subject matter:
- Mothers and children »

Record last updated May 16, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.

Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Woman and Child, c.1872 (Hills no. 18.0.13)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=223 (accessed on May 4, 2024).