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

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Photo: © Copyright Trustees of Dartmouth College
[ 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. 21.1.29
1907 Sale no. 59
In the Land of Nod
Alternate titles: possibly The Sleeping Child; In the Land of Nod, Sleeping Child; Sleeping Child; Sleeping Girl
1879
Oil on academy board
18 1/2 x 21 1/2 in. (47 x 54.6 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson/1879
Dr. Roger A. Hurwitz
Description / Remarks

Hills, 2022: 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. 59: "A young girl, her head thrown back and half buried in the pillows, her left hand raised upon her bosom, lies quietly sleeping under a white coverlet."
"Signed at the lower left, E. Johnson, 1879
Height, 18 inches; length, 21 ½ inches."
[Annotation: “45.00”]
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. 59 (as In the Land of Nod)]
[Sotheby's, October 22, 1982, lot 58 (as Sleeping Girl)]
Dr. Roger A. Hurwitz, October 22, 1982 (by purchase)
Exhibitions
1883 Detroit Art Loan
Detroit Art Loan, Detroit, 1883. (Detroit Art Loan 1883), no. 380, [possibly, as The Sleeping Child].
1987 Hood Museum
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, From Titian to Sargent: Dartmouth Alumni and Friends Collect, September 12–November 1, 1987, no. 109, as Sleeping Child.
References
Detroit Art Loan 1883
Catalogue of Art Works Exhibited. Detroit, MI: Detroit Art Loan, 1883. Exhibition catalogue (1883 Detroit Art Loan), p. 39, no. 380 [possibly, as The Sleeping Child].
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. 59, as In the Land of Nod.
Hood Museum 1987
From Titian to Sargent: Dartmouth Alumni and Friends Collect. Hanover, NH: Hood Museum of Art, 1987. Exhibition catalogue, n.p., no. 109 illus., as Sleeping Child.
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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. "In the Land of Nod, 1879 (Hills no. 21.1.29)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=286 (accessed on April 23, 2024).