Catalogue Entry
Johnson’s wife, Elizabeth, no doubt turned his attention to representations of women alone—either in interiors or outside. Such women are often lost in thought and suggest sentient beings with an inner life. In my interviews with descendants of Johnson’s siblings, she is presented as an independent woman. Johnson painted her portrait in which she assumes the posture of a woman who thinks on her own (also see theme 31.3). —PH
Hills, 2021: Given the fact that this painting was exhibited at the Great Central Fair in 1864, a fair to raise funds for the Union Army, the subject may tacitly refer to a mourning Civil War widow.
American Art Association sale catalogue, 1902: "A woman in black, with a black veil covering her head and shoulders, kneels in prayer before a carved-wood prie-Dieu that stands against the wall, under a large picture. Behind her, to the left, is a couch, with wooden rails enclosing a red coverlet, and a high wooden head, with curtains of the same color."
- Subject matter: