loading loading
Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, MA, Project Manager

Catalogue Entry

enlarge
Photo: Courtesy of Sotheby’s, Inc. © 2021
25.2 Women Outdoors

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

View all works in this theme »

Hills no. 25.2.2
Baur no. 97
Girl and Turkey
Alternate titles: Feeding the Turkey; Woman Feeding Turkey
c.1870–80
Oil on canvas
24 x 16 1/8 in. (61 x 41 cm)
Signed lower left: E. Johnson
This catalogue raisonné strives to reproduce the available historical information, as it was written in the period, while acknowledging that readers today may find many of these terms objectionable or racist. Please see the Racist Language/Negative Stereotypes Statement »
Description / Remarks

Hills opinion letter, 2009: "The turkey’s foot firmly grasps the foot of the young woman, and with seriousness she holds up the bowl and with her right hand cautions the turkey not to attack. She perhaps is training him to do some trick before she will set the bowl down. "

Anderson Galleries sale catalogue, 1924: "A fine specimen is stretching its neck toward a dish held aloft by a young woman standing near a wall."

 

Provenance
[Anderson Galleries, Inc., April 28–29, 1924, Fifty-Nine Paintings from the Estate of the Late Benno Loewy New York City and Twenty-Four Paintings to be Sold by Order of Mr. J. H. Dripps Philadelphia, PA. and Other Collections, no. 131 (as Feeding the Turkey)]
Laura Davidson Sears Gallery of Fine Arts, Elgin Academy, Elgin, Illinois, by 1940
Dr. Alfred Bader, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (by purchase)
[Sotheby Parke Bernet, April 17, 1975, lot 50]
Jean L. Siudmak
Sotheby's, December 3, 2009, lot 83 (as Feeding the Turkey); did not sell
Sotheby's, April 8, 2011, lot 35, Property from the Collection of Jean L. Siudmak (as Feeding the Turkey); did not sell
[Sotheby's, September 27–28, 2011, Sale 8773, lot 293, Property from the Collection of Jean L. Siudmak (as Feeding the Turkey)]
Private collection, Florida, September 27 or 28, 2011 (by purchase)
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1877a Century Association
Century Association, New York, January 13, 1877, as Girl and Turkey.
References
Anderson Galleries 1924
Benno Loewy and J. H. Dripps and others Sale. New York: Anderson Galleries, April 28–29, 1924. Sale catalogue, p. 38, no. 131.
Baur 1940
Baur, John I. H. An American Genre Painter: Eastman Johnson, 1824–1906. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, 1940. Exhibition catalogue (1939 Brooklyn Museum), p. 64, no. 97.
Sotheby Parke Bernet 1975a
American 18th, 19th & 20th Century Paintings, Drawings, Watercolors & Sculpture. New York: Sotheby Parke Bernet, April 17, 1975. Sale catalogue.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1972-01; 2009-11-25
Examination notes: 2009-11-25 Sotheby's: Turkey has foot on her foot. Clasping the black leather. Her skirt—blue-edged ruffles. Thinly painted. Face has more definition. Typical lips. Pencil (?) lines along both arms and fingers. Pink of head of turkey—sketch style aesthetic. Probably did not intend to finish it more.
Hills opinion letter: December 2, 2009 view »
Related work
loading
loading
Keywords
  • Subject matter: 
Record last updated August 1, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Girl and Turkey, c.1870–80 (Hills no. 25.2.2)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=338 (accessed on May 5, 2024).