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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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© 1998 Christie’s Images Limited
[ 22.0 Boys and Girls Together ]info
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22.0 Boys and Girls Together

On occasion, Johnson painted boys and girls together. Most notable were his scenes of street musicians. During the 1870s Italian immigrant children earned money for their families by playing musical instruments in the city streets; such children were known as “slaves of the harp” [See John E. Zucchi, Little Slaves of the Harp: Italian Child Street Musicians in Nineteenth-Century Paris, London, and New York (McGill-Queens University Press, 1992)]. —PH

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Hills no. 22.0.4
The Postboy
Alternate titles: The Post Boy; The Village Post Boy; The Village Post-Boy; The Village Postboy
1862
Oil on canvas
12 x 14 1/2 in. (30.5 x 36.8 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson/1862
Present whereabouts unknown
Description / Remarks

William Young, Lights and Shadows of New York Picture Galleries, 1864: "The two figures in this simple but attractive picture are well worth studying. The mail has arrived. Going his rounds, or bound to start upon them, the young post-man lingers over the cooking-stove, loth to face the biting air without. Brimful of importance, but very cold, and lazy perchance besides, he crouches over the kindly fire, having flung his letters on the ground, that he may devote himself to it without impediment. Conscious he may be of his great mission; but he is intent on warmth. As for the news—let it wait." 

This painting has the same setting as Knitting for the Soldiers.

Provenance
Marshall O. Roberts, New York, by 1864 until at least 1867 (as The Postboy and The Post Boy)
Christie's, May 21, 1998, lot 90 (as The Village Post Boy); did not sell
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1864b U.S. Sanitary Commission
U.S. Sanitary Commission, New York, Art Exhibition at the Metropolitan Fair in Aid of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, April 4–23, 1864. (Exhibition catalogue: U.S. Sanitary Commission 1864), no. 84, as The Postboy, owner M. O. Roberts.
References
Art-Journal 1864
"Review of Lights and Shadows of New York Picture Galleries. Forty Photographs by A. A. I Turner. Selected and described by William Young. Published by Sampson Low &, Co, London; D. Appleton & Co, New York." The Art-Journal (London) 26 (January 1, 1864), p. 123: "‘The Village Postboy,’ Eastman Johnson, is by an American artist, who, we presume, has studied in France," as The Village Postboy.
U.S. Sanitary Commission 1864
Catalogue of the Art Exhibition at the Metropolitan Fair, in Aid of the U.S. Sanitary Commission. New York: U.S. Sanitary Commission, 1864. Exhibition catalogue (1864b U.S. Sanitary Commission), p. 8, no. 84, as The Postboy, owner M. O. Roberts.
Young 1864
Young, William. Lights and Shadows of New York Picture Galleries. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1864, n.p., no. 5 illus.: "The two figures in this simple but attractive picture are well worth studying. The mail has arrived. Going his rounds, or bound to start upon them, the young post-man lingers over the cooking-stove, loth to face the biting air without. Brimful of importance, but very cold, and lazy perchance besides, he crouches over the kindly fire, having flung his letters on the ground, that he may devote himself to it without impediment. Conscious he may be of his great mission; but he is intent on warmth. As for the news—let it wait," as The Village Post-Boy, owner M. O. Roberts, Esq.
Tuckerman 1867
Tuckerman, Henry T. Book of the American Artists: American Artist Life. New York: G. P. Putnam & Son, 1867, p. 626, as The Post Boy, owner Marshall O. Roberts, Esq. N. Y.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1998-04-07
Examination notes: Luminous shadows. Note letters on floor. Cabbage on right. Graphite lines—not so evident. But see on wrist. Blue highlights on chair. Disappearing face on little girl. Same scene as Knitting for the Soldiers.
Related work
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Keywords
Record last updated August 18, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "The Postboy, 1862 (Hills no. 22.0.4)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=247 (accessed on May 5, 2024).