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

Catalogue Entry

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[ 18.0 Mother and Child ]info
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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

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Hills no. 18.0.8
1907 Sale no. 105
The Baby by Candle Light
1870, October 2
Locale: Nantucket, Massachusetts
Oil
20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
Initialed and dated lower right: E. J., Nantucket, Oct. 2, 1870
Present whereabouts unknown
Description / Remarks

Hills, 2021: Johnson was specific about dating the painting, which suggests an occasion he meant to commemorate. The likely models are his wife Elizabeth and daughter Ethel, who would have been about six months at that point. The identity of the boy is unknown; perhaps he was a Nantucket neighbor. Note that the figure other than the mother and baby is a boy, whereas in Sketch of a Baby, Mother, and Girl by Candlelight the additional figure is a girl.

Although John I. H. Baur owned and annotated a copy of the catalogue of Johnson's 1907 Estate Sale, he did not include this work in his own 1940 catalogue listing; he must have obtained it after publication.

1907 Estate Sale info
No. 105: "A young mother is holding her infant on a table, while a lad is amusing the child with some simple game. The little group is in strong artificial light, which accentuates the head of the infant, the white drapery, the hands of the mother and the boy, making a vigorous contrast with the mysterious surroundings. A rattle, a teacup and a book lie on the table near the infant."
"Signed at the lower right, E. J., Nantucket, Oct. 2, 1870.
Height, 20 inches; width, 16 inches."
[Annotation: “50.00”]
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. 105 (as The Baby by Candle Light)]
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, as The Baby by Candle Light.
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. 105, as The Baby by Candle Light.
Crosby 1944
Crosby, Everett U. Eastman Johnson at Nantucket: His Paintings and Sketches of Nantucket People and Scenes. Nantucket, MA, 1944, p. 18, C.47, as The Baby by Candle Light.
Keywords
Record last updated April 7, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "The Baby by Candle Light, 1870, October 2 (Hills no. 18.0.8)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=236 (accessed on May 4, 2024).