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

Catalogue Entry

enlarge
Photo: Unknown
Child and Rabbits, c.1878 (Hills no. 23.0.11r). Black & white
Black & white
Photo: Gil Anderson, New Haven, CT
23.0 Children and Pets

A traditional theme in genre painting, but also seen in children’s portraits, are children interacting with their pets. Pets, then and now, were given to children to encourage responsibility and even empathy toward other creatures. Pictures in the theme Maine Haylofts (13.7) also include children and pets. —PH

View all works in this theme »

Hills no. 23.0.11r
1907 Sale no. 40
Child and Rabbits
Alternate titles: possibly Child with Rabbits; possibly Girl and Rabbits
c.1878
Oil on board
11 1/2 x 6 5/8 in. (29.2 x 16.8 cm)
Initialed lower right: E.J.
Description / Remarks

Hills, 2021: There is a discrepancy between the dimensions listed in the catalogue of the 1907 sale of Johnson's estate and the actual dimensions of the painting. However, both the recto and verso match the description of 1907 Sale no. 40. It is likely that the dimensions were misstated in the catalogue.

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. 40: "A small girl is just opening a narrow door, apparently to feed her five pet white rabbits, which have assembled at the sound of her footsteps and stand in various attitudes of expectation, eagerly welcoming their little mistress. On the back of this panel is a fragment of a picture showing a little girl seated in a kitchen chair, holding a pet white rabbit in her lap."
"Signed at the lower right, E. J.
Height, 20 inches; width, 11 inches."
[Annotation “70.00”]
Provenance
Eastman Johnson estate/Mrs. Eastman Johnson, New York, 1906 (by bequest)
[The artist's estate sale, American Art Association, New York, February 26, 1907, no. 40 (as Child and Rabbits)]
Helen Johnston, appraiser, Orange, Connecticut
Private collection, New Haven, Connecticut (by purchase)
Private collection, by September 1983
[Christie's, December 9, 1983, Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture of the 19th and 20th Centuries, lot 22 (as Child and Rabbits)]
[Christie's, December 7, 1984, Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture of the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries, lot 74 (as Child and Rabbits)]
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1878 Century Association
Century Association, New York, June 1, 1878, [possibly, as Child with Rabbits].
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, [possibly, as Girl and Rabbits].
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. 40, as Child and Rabbits.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1983-09-13; 1983-11-10
Examination notes: Yellow ochre along door edge. Burnt sienna, raw umber, etc.; child's face very sketchy. First sketch.
Hills opinion letter: September 15, 1983 view »
Related work
loading
Keywords
Record last updated November 13, 2023. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Child and Rabbits, c.1878 (Hills no. 23.0.11r)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=356 (accessed on March 29, 2024).