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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: Washington County Museum of Fine Arts
Child Playing Croquet, c.1880–89 (Hills no. 31.6.2). Inscription
Inscription
Photo: Washington County Museum of Fine Arts
[ 31.6 U.S. Portraits, Children and Adolescents, Unidentified ]info
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31.6 U.S. Portraits, Children and Adolescents, Unidentified

The identities of the children and adolescents in these portraits have not yet been confirmed. However, the paintings are known or believed to have been done in the United States based on factors including their style, inscribed dates, and the appearance of the sitters when images are available. Johnson painted the vast majority of his oil portraits after he returned to the United States from Europe in 1855. —AM

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Hills no. 31.6.2
1907 Sale no. 23
Child Playing Croquet
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts title: Child Playing Croquet (Girl with Croquet Mallet)
Alternate title: Girl with Croquet Mallet
c.1880–89
Oil on canvas-paperboard panel
20 1/2 x 13 3/4 in. (52.1 x 34.9 cm)
Signed lower left in red paint: E.J. [the "J" is indistinct]
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of Sidney Levyne, Pikesville, MD (A1473,66.0013)
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.

MacGibeny, 2021: Although this painting is inscribed today, no inscription was noted in the 1907 Estate Sale catalogue.

1907 Estate Sale info
No. 23: "The full-length figure of a little fair-haired girl, both arms akimbo, partly leaning upon a croquet mallet. She wears a short dark-colored velvet dress with full skirt, showing red stockings and high shoes below, with black ribbons around her neck and waist. The head is in three-quarters view to the left and the eyes look out of the picture. The figure is relieved against a simple landscape showing tall trees on either side and a wide vista between them, with a lake and a low range of hills in the distance."
"Height, 20 inches; width, 14 ½ inches"
[Annotation: “Out”]
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. 23 (as Child Playing Croquet)]
Sidney Levyne, Pikesville, Maryland, until 1966
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, Maryland, 1966 (by gift)
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. 23, as Child Playing Croquet.
Keywords
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. "Child Playing Croquet, c.1880–89 (Hills no. 31.6.2)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=302 (accessed on May 4, 2024).