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

Catalogue Entry

enlarge
Photo: National Academy of Design, New York
[ 21.1 Girls Indoors ]info
⊠
21.1 Girls Indoors

Johnson’s daughter, Ethel, was born in May 1870, and it is not surprising that Johnson would use her (but not exclusively) as a model for the many pictures of young girls in interiors—playing with dolls, warming their hands by a stove, reading, sleeping. Such pictures often include the same furniture, such as the prie dieu (church prayer bench or kneeler) seen in Family Cares and The Tea Party. Because they were genre paintings, not portraits, Johnson freely renders the facial features. Thus, it is not surprising that for paintings done circa 1873, the bodily types of the girls look like three-year-olds; whereas those done circa 1878, look more like eight-years-olds. —PH

View all works in this theme »

Hills no. 21.1.1
The Sketch Book
Alternate title: The Art Lover
c.1859–60
Oil on canvas
12 1/4 x 15 1/4 in. (31.1 x 38.7 cm)
Possibly signed; signature was noted in 1993–95 National Academy of Design painting conservation survey, but no inscription seen during Hills examination in 1970
National Academy of Design, New York, Bequest of James A. Suydam, 1865 (670-P)
Description / Remarks

National Academician Database, accessed April 12, 2021: "Based on a drawing that he made while living and working in The Hague during the early 1850s, Eastman Johnson's 'The Art Lover' depicts a Dutch girl's aesthetic education from a book of landscape prints. James A. Suydam's purchase of Johnson's painting after what is believed to be its first exhibition in 1859 illustrates Suydam's interest in Dutch culture and his own Dutch heritage. The subject's introspection and the composition's rich contrasts of light and dark are aspects of the Dutch visual tradition that influenced both Johnson and Suydam."

Provenance
James A. Suydam, by 1865 (by purchase)
National Academy of Design, New York, 1865 (by bequest)
Exhibitions
1859 NAD
National Academy of Design, New York, April 13–June 25, 1859. (NAD 1859), no. 713, as The Sketch Book, owner Eastman Johnson.
1865 Artists' Fund Society
Artists' Fund Society, New York, December 29, 1865. (Exhibition catalogue: Artists' Fund Society 1865), no. 23, as The Art Lover, owner National Academy of Design.
1989 NAD
National Academy of Design, New York, An American Collection: Paintings and Sculpture from the National Academy of Design, October 7, 1989–January 1992. Traveled to: Cheekwood Fine Arts Center, Nashville, Tennessee, October 7, 1989–January 7, 1990; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina, March 4–April 24, 1990; Emory University Museum, Atlanta, May 30–July 15, 1990; Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, California, August 15–October 31, 1990; Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, May 18–July 14, 1991; Washington University Gallery of Art, Saint Louis, September 6–November 3, 1991; Denver Art Museum, Denver, November 1991–January 1992.
References
NAD 1859
Catalogue of the Thirty-Fourth Exhibition. New York: National Academy of Design, 1859. Exhibition catalogue (1859 NAD), p. 43, no. 713, as The Sketch Book, owner Eastman Johnson.
Artists' Fund Society 1865
Artists' Fund Society. Catalogue of the Sixth Annual Exhibition. New York: Printed for the Society by G. A. Whitehorne, 1865. Exhibition catalogue (1865 Artists' Fund Society), n.p. (5), no. 23, as The Art Lover, owner N. A. D. [National Academy of Design].
NAD 1911
Catalogue of the Permanent Collection: National Academy of Design, 1826-1910. New York: National Academy of Design, 1911, no. 49, as The Art Lover.
Art News 1942
Art News 40, no. 16 (January 15, 1942).
Lane 1942
Lane, James L. "The Heritage of the National Academy." Art News 40 (January 1942).
Dearinger 1989
Dearinger, David B. "Catalogue entry for The Art Lover." In An American Collection: Paintings and Sculpture from the National Academy of Design, by Abigail Booth Gerdts. New York: National Academy of Design, 1989, pp. 34–35, illus.
Douglass 1999
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, pp. 259, 260.
Dearinger 2004
Dearinger, David Bernard, ed. Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of the National Academy of Design. Vol. I, 1826–1925. New York and Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills Press, 2004, p. 324, as The Art Lover.
McCarthy and Thompson 2019
McCarthy, Jeremiah William, and Diana Thompson. For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019, pp. 65–66 illus., as The Art Lover.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1970-11-25
Examination notes: Muddy brown background. Green and red couch (design not clear). Stool—a scumbled brown sienna tone, tassels. Box underneath with elaborate interlaced design on top. Girl: dusty rose dress, white apron, green socks, hole in left toe, wooden shoe on right. Pillow with crewel-type flower designs. Pink cheeks, lips, etc. Light from left not strong—emphasis on local color. Condition: fairly good.
Related work
loading
Keywords
enlarge
Photo: Rijksmuseum
Child with Picturebook [lithograph by Frederik Hendrik Weissenbruch; printed by Jan Dam Steuerwald]
c.1855–63
10 5/8 x 13 5/16 in. (27 x 33.8 cm)
Inscribed lower right in plate: E.Johnson.; printed lower right below plate: E. Johnson del.; printed lower center below plate: Steendr.v.J. D. Steuerwald; printed lower right below plate: F. H. Weisfenbruch Dznlith.; collector's mark: Lugt 2228
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (RP-P-1906-4449)

See all Prints after Works by Johnson.

Record last updated September 8, 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 Sketch Book, c.1859–60 (Hills no. 21.1.1)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=266 (accessed on April 25, 2024).