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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, Project Manager and Co-Author

Catalogue Entry

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[ 24.0 Adolescent Girls ]info
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24.0 Adolescent Girls

As Johnson got to know his nieces and also his daughter Ethel during their teen-aged years, he realized that they were not just genteel creatures who read books, but also smart young adults who read newspapers. Of all American artists, Johnson is perhaps the only artist (besides women artists such as Lily Martin Spencer and Mary Cassatt) who shows women reading newspapers. —PH

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Hills no. 24.0.8
1907 Sale no. 8
Young Girl Reading
c.1872
Oil
11 1/2 x 6 in. (29.2 x 15.2 cm)
Initialed lower right: E.J.
Present whereabouts unknown
Description/Remarks

Hills 2021: Although called Young Girl Reading, the description in the 1907 Estate Sale catalogue suggests an adolescent. Bretelles were a feature of women's dresses, and thus more likely to be worn by an adolescent than a child.

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. 8: "At the moment the artist painted her she was looking over the book with her fine eyes. She holds the book in one hand, wears a blue waist, black bretelles and silk skirt."
"Signed at the lower right, E.J.
Height, 11 ½ inches; width, 6 inches"
[No notations]
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. 8 (as Young Girl Reading)]
Present whereabouts unknown
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. 8, as Young Girl Reading.
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. "Young Girl Reading, c.1872 (Hills no. 24.0.8)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=267 (accessed on May 2, 2025).