enlarge
Photo: Courtesy Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Inscription
Photo: Courtesy the painting owner
John Greenleaf Whittier's poem "The Barefoot Boy," illustrated in The Little Pilgrim, January 1855
Photo: Public domain
⊠27.0 Literary/Historical
In addition to his scenes of everyday life and portraits of people, Johnson created images of historical events and figures from works of literature, drama, and music. For example, “Carry Me, and I’ll Drum You Through” was inspired by an incident from the Battle of Antietam, 1862, and Membership Vote at the Union League Club, May 11, 1876, recorded a contentious meeting in which he participated much later. His Marguerite, Cosette, and Minnehaha are personifications of fictional heroines from novels and poetry. His Boy Lincoln represents both the future United States president and the archetypical American youth who, with determination and hard work, could succeed. Johnson rendered several of these imaginative images as both paintings and drawings. These literary and historical works evince both his personal interest in those subjects and his awareness of their popularity with the broad public. —AM
View all works in this theme »
Hills no. 27.0.4
The Barefoot Boy
Alternate titles: possibly The Bare-foot Boy; possibly The Barefooted Boy; Barefoot Boy; Boy in Stream
1860
Oil on canvas
12 3/4 x 9 1/2 in. (32.4 x 24.1 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson 1860
loading
Exhibitions
Boston Athenaeum, Boston, 1860, no. 209, [possibly, as
The Barefooted Boy], owner W. Dwight
.
Crayon Art Gallery, New York, June 1860, [possibly, as
The Barefoot Boy]
.
References
"Art Items." The Evening Post (New York),
June 11, 1860, p. 2 [possibly, as
The Bare-foot Boy]
.
Douglass, Julie M. "Lifetime Exhibition History." In
Eastman Johnson: Painting America,
by Teresa A. Carbone and Patricia Hills.
Brooklyn, NY:
Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications,
1999.
Exhibition catalogue, p. 260 [possibly, as
The Barefoot Boy and/or
The Barefooted Boy]
.
Perry, Claire. Young America: Childhood in 19th-Century Art and Culture. New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press,
2006.
Exhibition catalogue (2006 Cantor Center for Visual Arts), p.12, fig. 9, illus., as
The Barefoot Boy.
Related work
loading
enlarge
Photo: Reproduced in Folk Songs, Illustrated from Original Designs, edited by John Williamson Palmer, M.D., 1860., p. 386
The Barefoot Boy [engraving by Andrew & Filmer]
1860
Engraving
Present whereabouts unknown
See all Prints after Works by Johnson.
Record last updated March 29, 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 Barefoot Boy, 1860 (Hills no. 27.0.4)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=262 (accessed on November 6, 2024).