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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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24.0 Adolescent Girls

As Johnson got to know his nieces and also his daughter Ethel during their teen-aged years, he realized that they were not just genteel creatures who read books, but also smart young adults who read newspapers. Of all American artists, Johnson is perhaps the only artist (besides women artists such as Lily Martin Spencer and Mary Cassatt) who shows women reading newspapers. —PH

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Hills no. 24.0.3
1907 Sale no. 42
Adelaide
c.1870–79
Oil
19 x 15 in. (48.3 x 38.1 cm)
Initialed lower right: E. J.
Description / Remarks

Hills, 2021: Although the 1907 Estate Sale catalogue calls the figure a “young girl,” the narrative describes an adolescent.

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. 42: "This is the half-length figure of a young girl, seated in an ordinary wooden chair, slightly resting her head upon her left hand. Her face is in three-quarters view to the right in a strong effect of light and shade, and her large dark eyes are turned slightly away from the spectator. Her dark hair is brushed back from her forehead, and she wears a loose gray blouse with variegated ribbon at the neck, and a gray skirt with a black patent leather belt. The background is a graded tone of warm gray.
Signed at the lower right, E. J.
Height, 19 inches; width, 15 inches."
[Annotation: “27.50”]
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. 42 (as Adelaide)]
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, as Adelaide.
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. 42, as Adelaide.
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. "Adelaide, c.1870–79 (Hills no. 24.0.3)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=321 (accessed on April 29, 2024).