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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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Photo: Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester
20.2 Boys Outdoors

Young boys have been a traditional staples of genre painting. To patrons of art during the mid-nineteenth century these youths recalled memories of their own growing years in which innocence was becoming more and more modified by mischievous cunning. —PH

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Hills no. 20.2.5
1907 Sale no. 4
Back from the Orchard
Alternate title: Boy Eating Apples
c.1876
Oil on board
10 3/8 x 6 5/8 in. (26.4 x 16.8 cm)
Signed lower right: E. Johnson
Description / Remarks

Hills, 2022: 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. 4: "A small boy has evidently been robbing an orchard, for he has the pockets of his brown overalls crammed with large apples, holds two under his left arm and is eating a third. Near him is the suggestion of a gateway in a rail fence. The figure is in full sunlight."
"Signed at the lower right, E. Johnson.
Height, 10 ½ inches; width, 6 ½ inches."
[Annotation: “250.00 [sic] Louis Ettlinger”] [Hills, 2021: $250 seems high]
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. 4 (as Back from the Orchard)]
Louis Ettlinger, February 26, 1907 (by purchase)
Estate of Mrs. Giles Whiting
Frank Fowler, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, by 1974
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1974–1976
Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, January 1976 (by purchase)
Exhibitions
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, [possibly, as Back from the Orchard].
1974 Hirschl & Adler
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, Quality: An Experience in Collecting, November 12–December 7, 1974. (Hirschl & Adler Galleries 1974), no. 28, illus., as Back from the Orchard.
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. 4, as Back from the Orchard.
American Art News 1907b
"Eastman Johnson Sale." American Art News 5, no. 20 (March 2, 1907), as Back from the Orchard.
Hirschl & Adler Galleries 1974
Quality: An Experience in Collecting. New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 1974. Exhibition catalogue (1974 Hirschl & Adler), no. 28, illus., as Back from the Orchard.
Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester 1976
"Gallery Notes." Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester 41, no. 7 (March 1976), as Back from the Orchard.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1970-07-21
Examination notes: Big red and green apples. Green grass, brownish background. Face painted with very fine brushstrokes—not smoothed over. Figure is clearly outlined. Bloom over painting.
Related work
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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. "Back from the Orchard, c.1876 (Hills no. 20.2.5)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=255 (accessed on May 2, 2024).