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

Catalogue Entry

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Photo: The San Diego Museum of Art
Children Playing in a Barn, c.1877–79 (Hills no. 13.7.5). Detail
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
Children Playing in a Barn, c.1877–79 (Hills no. 13.7.5). Detail
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
Children Playing in a Barn, c.1877–79 (Hills no. 13.7.5). Detail
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
Children Playing in a Barn, c.1877–79 (Hills no. 13.7.5). Detail
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
Children Playing in a Barn, c.1877–79 (Hills no. 13.7.5). Detail
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
Children Playing in a Barn, c.1877–79 (Hills no. 13.7.5). Overall
Overall
Photo: Patricia Hills
13.7 Maine Haylofts, 1870s

In 1877, and possibly 1878, Johnson visited his sister Harriet May and her family in Kennebunkport, Maine. He found a delightful subject in the games the children played in the barn. For Johnson it was another opportunity to render darkened interiors, from which figures emerge, with sunlight shining through loft doors and playing off the partially illuminated figures and objects in the foreground. It is quite likely that many of the paintings were finished in his New York studio. —PH

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Hills no. 13.7.5
Baur no. 112 / 1907 Sale no. 73
Children Playing in a Barn
San Diego Museum of Art title: In the Hayloft
Alternate titles: possibly Jumping in the Barn; Children Playing in Barn
c.1877–79
Oil on canvas
26 1/2 x 33 in. (67.3 x 83.8 cm)
Description / Remarks

Baur 1940, p. 47: "The scene is same as that in [Baur] nos. 77, 102, 135, pp. 47, 48. It is the barn at Kenebunkport, Maine, on a farm rented by the May family during the 1870's. Mrs. May was Harriet Johnson, a sister of the painter, and her three children with their friends were painted in this series during Johnson's visits to them in the summer."

1907 Estate Sale info
No. 73: "A number of country children are spending a merry hour in the haymow of an old barn. Some of them are half buried in the soft hay, others have climbed upon a large beam, from which they are jumping into the mow, and an enterprising lad is climbing a great wooden brace which supports the roof truss. A strong flood of light accentuates the figures, bringing them into relief against a shadowy background."
"Height, 26 ½ inches; length, 32 ½ inches."
[Annotation: “100.00 / Thos. H. Hubbard / now called ‘In the Hayloft’”]
Provenance
Eastman Johnson estate/Mrs. Eastman Johnson, New York, 1906 (by bequest)
[The artist's estate sale, American Art Association, New York, February 26–27, 1907, no. 73 (as Children Playing in a Barn)]
Thomas Hamlin Hubbard, February 26, 1907 (by purchase)
Sibyl Emma Hubbard (Mrs. Herbert Seymour) Darlington, Philadelphia, his daughter, until June 1935
The San Diego Museum of Art, June 1935 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1878a NAD
National Academy of Design, New York, [unknown title], April 2–June 1, 1878. (Exhibition catalogue: NAD 1878a), no. 546, as Children Playing in a Barn.
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, [possibly, as Jumping in the Barn].
1939 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, An American Genre Painter: Eastman Johnson, 1824–1906, January 18, 1939–February 26, 1940. (Exhibition catalogue: Baur 1940), no. 112, as In the Hayloft.
1940 Douthitt Gallery
The Douthitt Gallery, New York, Eastman Johnson: The Keystone Artist, March 28–April 30, 1940. (Douthitt Gallery 1940), no. 13, as In the Hayloft.
1960 Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego
Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, San Diego, War, Peace, and Union, October 7–30, 1960, no. 35.
1963 Colby College Museum
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, Maine and Its Artists, 1710–1963: The Colby College Sesquicentennial Exhibition, May 6–September 1, 1963, illus. Traveled to: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, December 12, 1963–January 26, 1964; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, February 10–March 22, 1964.
1972 Whitney Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition, March 28–May 14, 1972. (Exhibition catalogue: Hills 1972a), no. 94, b/w illus., p. 84, as In the Hayloft. Traveled to: The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, June 7–July 22, 1972; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, August 15–September 30, 1972; Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, October 20–December 3, 1972.
1999 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, Eastman Johnson: Painting America, October 29, 1999–February 6, 2000. (Exhibition catalogue: Carbone and Hills 1999), no. 50, color illus., as In the Hayloft. Traveled to: San Diego Museum of Fine Arts, San Diego, February 25–May 21, 2000; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, June 8–September 10, 2000.
References
NAD 1878a
[unknown title]. New York: National Academy of Design, 1878. Exhibition catalogue (1878a NAD), no. 546, as Children Playing in a Barn.
Waters and Hutton 1884
Waters, Clara Erskine Clement, and Laurence Hutton. Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works. Vol. II. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1884, p. 12, as Children Playing in a Barn.
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. 73, as Children Playing in a Barn.
American Art News 1907b
"Eastman Johnson Sale." American Art News 5, no. 20 (March 2, 1907), as Children Playing in Barn.
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), pp. 47, 65, no. 112, as In the Hayloft.
Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego 1960
Catalogue. San Diego: Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, 1960, p. 4.
Hills 1972a
Hills, Patricia. Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1972. Exhibition catalogue (1972 Whitney Museum), p. 84, no. 94, illus.
Carbone and Hills 1999
Carbone, Teresa A., and Patricia Hills. Eastman Johnson: Painting America. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications, 1999. Exhibition catalogue (1999 Brooklyn Museum), p. 91, no. 50.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 2019-06-13
Examination notes: Ten figures are in this painting plus a pentimento of a figure on the beam about to jump. Johnson seems to have eliminated this figure because it was too large in scale. The boy actually shown is the correct size for the scale.
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Record last updated June 29, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Children Playing in a Barn, c.1877–79 (Hills no. 13.7.5)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=368 (accessed on March 28, 2024).