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Photo: The San Diego Museum of Art
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
Overall
Photo: Patricia Hills
⊠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
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Hills no. 25.2.8
Woman Reading
Alternate title: On the Beach
c.1874
Oil on academy board mounted on cardboard and mounted on Masonite
25 1/4 x 18 1/2 in. (64.1 x 47 cm)
Unsigned
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Exhibitions
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Winslow Homer, May 2–June 8, 1936. (Exhibition catalogue: Philadelphia Museum of Art 1936), no. 11, as by Winslow Homer, lent by Mr. and Mrs. Chester Dale
.
References
Clifford, Henry. "Winslow Homer Centenary Exhibit in Philadelphia." Art News (May 9, 1936), article and cover, illus.
Winslow Homer. Philadelphia:
Philadelphia Museum of Art,
1936.
Exhibition catalogue (1936 Philadelphia Museum of Art), no. 11, lent by Mr. and Mrs. Chester Dale
.
Watson, Forbes. Winslow Homer. New York:
Crown Publishers,
1942, pl. 2
.
Art News (December 1976), illus. in color, as
Woman Reading.
Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego Annual Report (1976–1977), cover
.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1970-10-30; 2019-06-13
Examination notes: 1970-10-30, at Wildenstein: Straw hat with red border. Pinkish clouds almost cover blue sky. Boat suspended in the sky. Jagged outline of clothes. Woman holds letter. Light from left. Greenish water. Face painted with great care. Paw-like hands. Grassy ground is very thinly brushed. (Said to be painted about 1878.)
2019-06-13: Note graphite line along profile of cheek.Shadowed upper face very convincing. Heavier outlining along edge of fist and letter. White strokes along shoulders represent bright sunlight on her clothing.
Related work
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Record last updated September 5, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Woman Reading, c.1874 (Hills no. 25.2.8)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=339 (accessed on April 25, 2024).
