Catalogue Entry
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
Jane W. Pool, Fine Arts Committee, Department of State, ed., Guidebook to Diplomatic Reception Rooms, Bicentennial Issue, July 1975: "A young girl warming her hands by an old fashioned stove. This little girl may possibly be the daughter of the original owner of the painting, H. L. Horton of New York City, to whom the artist presented the painting in appreciation of his generosity to the newly founded Metropolitan Museum, New York."
- Subject matter:
- Stoves »