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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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12.0 Interiors—No or Slight Figures

Johnson often painted interiors without people, no doubt studies from real life. He used such oil studies to provide context for genre scenes. Objects resting on mantles, such as ceramic parrots or earthenware jars, frequently reappear, rearranged in interior genre scenes. —PH

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Hills no. 12.0.8
1907 Sale no. 95
The Barn—A Study in Browns
Alternate titles: possibly The Barn, Nantucket; A Brown Study
1879, August
Oil (possibly on canvas)
16 1/2 x 13 1/2 in. (41.9 x 34.3 cm)
Initialed and dated lower left: E.J. Aug. '79
Description / Remarks

Hills, 2022: 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. 95: "A very careful study in browns of the corner of a hayloft in a tumbledown old barn, with rough beams and boarding and a mass of old hay."
"Signed at the lower left, E. J., Aug., ’79.
Height, 16 ½ inches; width, 13 ½ inches."
[Annotation: “27.50”]
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. 95 (as The Barn—A Study in Browns)]
[Possibly Metropolitan Art Association, New York, April 15, 1914, A Collection of Miniatures, Enamel Boxes, Porcelains, Mirrors, Torcheres, and Other Art Objects, the Property of Mrs. A. Brayton Ball, Mr. Taylor Hatfield of New York City and Other Consignors and also A Collection of Oil and Water Colors by American and European Artists, no. 283 (as The Barn, Nantucket, "Canvas, signed. Height: 14 inches; width: 16 inches")]
[Possibly Anderson Galleries, Inc., May 6–7, 1915, A Collection of Paintings by American and Foreign Artists, Consigned by J. H. Andrews, E. T. Postlethwaite, Mrs. Walter James, Mrs. Ella Frankel, and others, no. 87 (as The Barn, Nantucket, "Canvas, signed. Height: 14 inches; width: 16 inches")]
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1880c Union League Club of New York
The Union League Club of New York, New York, December 1880, no. 53, as A Brown Study.
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. 95, as The Barn—A Study in Browns.
Metropolitan Art Association 1914
A Collection of Miniatures, Enamel Boxes, Porcelains, Mirrors, Torcheres, and Other Art Objects, the Property of Mrs. A. Brayton Ball, Mr. Taylor Hatfield of New York City and Other Consignors and also A Collection of Oil and Water Colors by American and European Artists. New York: Metropolitan Art Association, April 15, 1914. Sale catalogue, no. 283 [possibly, as The Barn, Nantucket, "Canvas, signed. Height, 14 inches; width, 16 inches"].
Anderson Galleries 1915
J. H. Andrews, E. T. Postlethwaite, Mrs. Walter James, Mrs. Ella Frankel, and Others Sale. New York: Anderson Galleries, May 6–7, 1915. Sale catalogue, no. 87 [possibly, as The Barn, Nantucket, "Canvas, signed. Height, 14 inches; width, 16 inches"].
Record last updated April 7, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "The Barn—A Study in Browns, 1879, August (Hills no. 12.0.8)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=374 (accessed on April 16, 2024).