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Photo: Adams Davidson Galleries
⊠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. 21.1.21
The Tea Party
Alternate title: Tea Party
1874
Oil on panel
19 1/4 x 15 1/4 in. (48.9 x 38.7 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson 1874
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Exhibitions
National Academy of Design, New York, Forty-ninth Annual Exhibition, April 9–June 6, 1874. (NAD 1874), no. 242, as
The Tea Party, owner R. L. S. Hall
.
References
New York:
National Academy of Design,
1874.
Exhibition catalogue (1874 NAD), no. 242, as
The Tea Party.
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. 261, as
The Tea Party.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1997-11-06; 1998?
Examination notes: Cherry red jacket. Subtle blue-grey highlights on left of desk. Little dollies. Thin sienna background. Rug: red and green design. Light from window at left. Dolly leaning against wall—leaning forward. Doll at right in a doll's wicker chair. Slight blue white highlight on shoe.
Record last updated March 3, 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 Tea Party, 1874 (Hills no. 21.1.21)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=272 (accessed on April 25, 2024).
