Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné

Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, MA, Project Manager

Catalogue Entry

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[ 21.1 Girls Indoors ]

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21.1 Girls Indoors

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. 21.1.2

The Young Housekeeper

Alternate title: The Little Housekeeper

1862

Oil on millboard

11 x 9 in. (27.9 x 22.9 cm)

Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson, N.Y. [likely also dated 1862]

Present whereabouts unknown

Description / Remarks

American Art Association sale catalogue, 1919: "A little girl, blond haired and barefooted, wearing a white waist and blue skirt, busying herself washing dishes in a cottage interior, with a window on the left."

Provenance

Robert Morrison Olyphant, New York, by 1867

[Ortgies & Co. General Auctioneers, January 28, 1886, Fairman Rogers and J.W. Bookwalter Collection of Paintings, lot 34 (as The Young Housekeeper)]

[American Art Galleries, New York, February 17, 1919, Olyphant and Garrett Collections Sale, no. 16 (as The Little Housekeeper)]

Mrs. G. E. Kellogg, February 1919 (by purchase)

Present whereabouts unknown

References

Tuckerman 1867

Tuckerman, Henry T. Book of the American Artists: American Artist Life. New York: G. P. Putnam & Son, 1867, pp. 470, 625 [as The Little Store-Keeper and The Little Housekeeper, respectively].

Ortgies & Co. 1886

Cat. of Fairman Rogers and J. W. Bookwaller Collection. New York: Ortgies & Co., January 28, 1886. Sale catalogue, p. 14, no. 34, as The Young Housekeeper, "From the Robert Olyphant Collection".

AAG 1919a

Catalogue of the Olyphant and Garrett Collections Sale. New York: American Art Galleries, February 1919. Sale catalogue, no. 16, as The Little Housekeeper.

Baur 1938–41a

Baur, John I. H. Notebook #1. 1938–41. John I. H. Baur papers, 1946–1979, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Record last updated July 28, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.

Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "The Young Housekeeper, 1862 (Hills no. 21.1.2)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=332 (accessed on April 30, 2024).