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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: Brooklyn Museum
[ 21.2 Girls Outdoors ]info
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21.2 Girls Outdoors

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. 21.2.8
1907 Sale no. 145
Child and Sled
Brooklyn Museum title: Portrait of a Child
Alternate titles: A Portrait; Child with Sled; Girl and Sled; Girl with Sleigh; Winter; Winter, Portrait of a Child
1879
Oil on canvas
50 15/16 x 32 in. (129.4 x 81.3 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson 1879
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Gift of the Charles M. Kurtz Trust (1992.108)
Description / Remarks

Hills, 2021: The model for this portrait-length figure is most likely Johnson’s daughter Ethel, who would have been eight years old in the winter of 1879. In January 15–16, 1879, a snowstorm brought 13 inches of snow to Central Park, a notable event; there were only five snowstorms that brought 12 inches or more snow in the period of 1869–1899, according to government statistics.

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. 145: "The full-length figure of a young girl in winter dress, standing in front of a snowbank, holding the cord of a sled in her right hand. She wears a close-fitting hood over a lace cap, a white muffler, a dark coat with a cape, one blue mitten and long cloth leggings. Beyond the snowbank, against which the figure is relieved, is a glimpse of a wintry landscape, showing a pond upon which a number of people are skating, and, farther away, a sloping snow-covered hillside, with here and there groups of trees."
"Signed at the lower left, E. Johnson.
Height, 51 inches; width, 32 inches"
[Annotation: “80.00”]
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. 145 (as Child and Sled)]
Charles McMeen Kurtz, Buffalo, New York, February 27, 1907 (by purchase)
Estate of Charles McMeen Kurtz, Buffalo, New York, 1909
[Fifth Avenue Galleries, New York, February 24–25, 1910, Oil Paintings, Water Colors, and Drawings of the Late Charles M. Kurtz, Ph.D., Director of the Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y., no. 147 (as Winter)]
C. Sprague, February 25, 1910 (by purchase)
Isabella S. Kurtz, daughter of Charles M. Kurtz, Buffalo, New York
Brooklyn Museum, New York, 1992 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1881 Society of American Artists
Society of American Artists, New York, March 28–April 29, 1881. (Society of American Artists 1881), no. 99, as A Portrait.
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, as Girl and Sled.
1999 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, Eastman Johnson: Painting America, October 29, 1999–February 6, 2000. (Exhibition catalogue: Carbone and Hills 1999), no. 53, as Winter, Portrait of a Child. Traveled to: San Diego Museum of Fine Arts, San Diego, February 25–May 21, 2000; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, June 8–September 10, 2000.
References
Society of American Artists 1881
Fourth Annual Exhibition. New York: Society of American Artists, 1881. Exhibition catalogue (1881 Society of American Artists), p. 10, no. 99, as A Portrait.
Library of Congress Copyright Office 1907
Library of Congress Copyright Office. Catalogue of Copyright Entries, Part 4: Engravings, Cuts, and Prints; Chromos and Lithographs; Photographs; Fine Arts; New Series. Volume 2, nos. 1–52, January–December, 1907. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1907, p. 223, no. 8041, as Child with Sled, copyright notice issued to Mrs. Eastman Johnson. "Child in lace cap and lace scarf, holding the rope of her sled in one hand," Class I, no. 20713, Feb. 6, 1907. One photograph received February 6, 1907.
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. 145, as Child and Sled.
Hartmann 1908
Hartmann, Sadakichi. "Eastman Johnson: American Genre Painter." The International Studio 34 (April 1908), p. 111, as Girl with Sleigh.
Fifth Avenue Art Galleries 1910
Catalogue of Oil Paintings, Water Colors, and Drawings of the Late Charles M. Kurtz. New York: Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, February 24–25, 1910. Sale catalogue, pp. 108, 117, no. 147, as Winter.
Levy 1911
Levy, Florence N., ed. American Art Annual, 1910–1911. New York: American Art Annual, 1911, p. 371, as Winter.
Carbone and Hills 1999
Carbone, Teresa A., and Patricia Hills. Eastman Johnson: Painting America. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications, 1999. Exhibition catalogue (1999 Brooklyn Museum), p. 95, no. 53, as Winter, Portrait of a Child.
Douglass 1999
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. 263, as A Portrait.
Hoppin 1999
Hoppin, Martha. Selections from the American Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts and the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum. Springfield, MA: Springfield Library & Museums Association, 1999, pp. 112–13, as Winter.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Conkling, Ethel Eastman Johnson
Biography:

Ethel Eastman Johnson Conkling (1870–1931). Daughter of Johnson. Married Alfred Ronalds Conkling (m. 1896); after Conkling died, married William H. Holden (m. 1922) and settled abroad. Mother of three daughters, only one of whom had her own children. Ethel was Johnson’s frequent model in his genre scenes of children. 

Conkling, Ethel Eastman Johnson (Mrs. Alfred Ronald Conkling, later Mrs. William H. Holden)
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 and Sled, 1879 (Hills no. 21.2.8)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=304 (accessed on May 18, 2024).