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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: Michael Stewart, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
[ 21.1 Girls Indoors ]info
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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

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Hills no. 21.1.7
Girl Reading
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution title: Interior
c.1868–69
Oil on paper board
15 1/2 x 13 in. (39.4 x 33 cm)
Initialed lower left in green: E. J.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966 (66.2605)
Description / Remarks

Hills, 2021:  Contrary to the description in the Kende Galleries sale catalogue, the girl is not kneeling before a fireplace, but rather a large piece of furniture. 

Kende Galleries sale catalogue, 1940: "Study of a young girl in a white dress seated before a fireplace, bent over her book; in a home-like interior."

Markings
Verso: Girl Reading
Provenance
[Kende Galleries, New York, May 1–2, 1940, Chinese and Japanese works of art, eighteen early studies and paintings by Eastman Johnson, no. 282 (as Girl Reading)]
[Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, February 7, 1958, lot 79]
Joseph Herman Hirshhorn, February 7, 1958–May 17, 1966
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1966 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1980 Hirshhorn Museum
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., The Intimate Scale, February 15–July 27, 1980, no. 20, from unpublished checklist.
References
Kende Galleries 1940
Chinese and Japanese Works of Art, Eighteen Early Studies and Paintings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kende Galleries, May 1–2, 1940. Sale catalogue, p. 36, no. 282, as Girl Reading.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1992-10-01
Examination notes: Back—grey-green. Chair—blue white highlights on chair. Can make out the wood turnings. Light blue highlights on furniture. Box—flecks of white highlights. Areas of underpaint. Red cloth—tiny highlights in yellow along edge. Cadmium (cheery red). Alizarin red—shadows. Rug of red, green, grey—with underpaint. Girl holding book—very sketchy.
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Record last updated July 28, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Girl Reading, c.1868–69 (Hills no. 21.1.7)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=268 (accessed on April 29, 2024).