Catalogue Entry

No. 58: "A little boy, seated on a low bench at the corner of an old brick fireplace, is playing on a fife, while his companion, eating a bowl of bread and milk, sits beside him listening to the music with evident satisfaction. In the foreground a large dog lies stretched on the hearth. A large earthen job stands on the mantel shelf, and a flint-lock gun hangs on the wall above."
"Signed at the lower right, E. J.
Height, 21 inches; width, 17 inches."
[Annotation: “32.00 / Cogswell”]

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. 58 (as The Fifer and His Friend)]

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)

With Douthitt Galleries, New York

With John Levy Galleries, New York

Maxim Karolik, by 1957

Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont, 1957 (by purchase)

John Levy Galleries, New York, America in the 19th Century: Its People, Pleasures, and Pursuits, May 16–June 9, 1944. (John Levy Galleries 1944), no. 8, as The Fifer & His Friend.

Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont, Painting a Nation: American Art at Shelburne Museum, May 24–October 31, 2014, as The Fifer and His Friend.

"Art Notes." The Art Journal (London) (1882), p. 61, "Artists' Fund Exhibition. …Eastman Johnson has done nothing better in a long time than ‘The Fifer and his Son,' whose solid technical qualities and pleasantly modulated color serve to express the intentions of the old man, and the wondering query in the boy's face, as he gazes up the fife to see whence the music comes. No artist tells the story better than Mr. Johnson, and yet no one makes his art of more value in itself."

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. 58, as The Fifer and His Friend.

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. 98, as The Fifer and His Friend.

Eastman Johnson: The Keystone Artist. New York: Douthitt Gallery, 1940. Exhibition catalogue (1940 Douthitt Gallery), p. 12, no. 11, as The Fifer and His Friend.

Exhibition of Eastman Johnson. New York: John Levy Galleries, 1942. Exhibition catalogue (1942 John Levy Galleries), n.p. (3), no. 20, as The Fifer and His Friend.

America in the 19th Century: Its People, Pleasures, and Pursuits. New York: John Levy Galleries, 1944. Exhibition catalogue (1944a John Levy Galleries), n.p., no. 8, as The Fifer & His Friend.