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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: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Open Access
[ 10.0 Civil War Themes ]info
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10.0 Civil War Themes

Johnson was thirty-six years old when the Civil War began. Although he did not serve in the Union Army, he followed the Union troops in search of subjects that would appeal to a pro-Union audience. He also painted pictures of the homefront. —PH

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Hills no. 10.0.25
1907 Sale no. 144
"The Girl I Left Behind Me"
Alternate title: The Girl I Left Behind Me
c.1872–75
Oil on canvas
42 x 34 7/8 in. (106.7 x 88.6 cm)
Signed lower right: E. Johnson
Smithsonian American Art Museum, museum purchase made possible in part by Mrs. Alexander Hamilton Rice in memory of her husband and by Ralph Cross Johnson (1986.79)
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: Like Kathleen Mavourneen, this painting refers to a song that was based on an Irish melody and became popular during the Civil War. The lyrics begin:

’Tis many days since I left home
To join our glorious army,
I thought but of my country’s call,
And not of what might harm me;
I vowed to join both heart and hand, 
Where duty calls you’ll find me,
I left my home, and shed a tear
For the girl I left behind me.

See the linked song sheet from the American Song Sheets Library of Congress Rare Books and Special Collections, published in 1862, and illustrated rendition of the song on YouTube: "The Girl I Left Behind Me—A Civil War Ballad."

Smithsonian American Art Museum website, accessed July 1, 2020: "A young girl stands on a promontory, her hair streaming in the wind. The path before her ends, so she must either retrace her steps or try to find a different way forward. Johnson called this painting The Girl I Left Behind Me, invoking an Irish ballad that was popular with both the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War."

1907 Estate Sale info
No. 144: "A schoolgirl, apparently on her way to recite her lessons, for she clasps to her bosom with both hands two large books, is standing on a sandy path overhanging the sea, and gazes thoughtfully across the turbulent water. A strong gale is blowing, and her mass of fair hair streams away from her head in waves, and her dark, red-lined cloak and red skirt are pressed against her by the force of the wind, and flutter behind her. The sky is filled with storm clouds, through which the sunlight breaks in a broad mass behind the head and shoulders of the young girl, here and there touching the crests of the tossing waves."
"Signed at the lower right, E. Johnson.
Height, 41 ½ inches; width, 34 inches."
[Annotation: “60.00”]
Additional Material
Markings
Inscribed on verso, on frame, upper right, ink, black chalk, and pencil: X/44

Inscribed on verso, on top frame spacer, in pencil: XXX
Labels
Handwritten label on verso, taped to a piece of wood (from a previous backboard?), top center: [illegible]

Handwritten label on verso, taped to a piece of wood (from previous backboard?), top center: Detroit. E/The Girl I Left/artist. Eastman John/65 West 55th st/New York [possibly in Johnson's hand; right edge is torn and illegible]

Typewritten label on verso, on foamcore backboard, upper center: James Maroney incorporated/129a East 74th Street, New York NY 10021/Artist Eastman Johnson (1842 [sic]-1906)/Title The Girl I Left Behind Me/Medium Oil on canvas/Size: 41 3/4 x 34 3/4 inches/J 860 202NC M

Handwritten label on verso, on frame, upper left: The Girl I Left Behind Me” [sic]

Label on verso, on frame, upper left: 4365/x30

Handwritten label on verso, on frame, bottom center: [illegible]

Label on frame, upper right side: 30/4365
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. 144 ("The Girl I Left Behind Me")]
[Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York, April 25, 1980, American Art: 19th and 20th Century Paintings, Drawings, Watercolors and Sculpture]
James Maroney, Inc., New York, until 1986
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, District of Columbia, 1986 (by purchase)
Exhibitions
1875 Chicago Interstate Industrial Exposition
Chicago Interstate Industrial Exposition, Chicago, 1875, no. 212, as The Girl I Left Behind Me.
1876 Brooklyn Art Association
Brooklyn Art Association, Brooklyn, New York, April 24–May 6, 1876, no. 329, as The Girl I Left Behind Me.
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, as The Girl I Left Behind Me.
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. 144, as "The Girl I Left Behind Me".
New York Times 1980
"Pictures Sold for the [Irish] Famine fund." New York Times, March 31, 1980.
National Museum of American Art 1987
Recent Acquisition. Washington, DC: National Museum of American Art, May 1987.
National Museum of American Art 1995
National Museum of American Art. American Art: The National Museum of American Art. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995, p. 68.
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).
Slowik 2006
Slowik, Theresa J. America's Art: Masterpieces from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2006.
Related work
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Keywords
Record last updated July 22, 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 Girl I Left Behind Me", c.1872–75 (Hills no. 10.0.25)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=312 (accessed on April 26, 2024).