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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: Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association
[ 26.6 Nantucket Portraits and Types ]info
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26.6 Nantucket Portraits and Types

Like many artists in the nineteenth century, Johnson often did paintings of “types” that are actually identifiable portraits. For example, the painting John F. Sylvia shows a Nantucket miller in his barn looking up from his account books to look out the window. Called at one time The Falling Market, the subject suggests a man perhaps assessing his position in the economy in the early years of the 1870s when a recession gripped the nation. —PH

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Hills no. 26.6.20
John F. Sylvia
Alternate titles: "A Falling Market"; A Falling Market; The Miller
c.1873
Locale: Nantucket, Massachusetts
Oil on canvas laid down on canvas
17 x 13 in. (43.2 x 33 cm)
Signed: E. Johnson [seen by conservator before 2000]; lower left, two inches from bottom, very faintly: J O H. [seen by Hills, 2000]
Nantucket Historical Association, Nantucket, Massachusetts, Gift of the Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association (2001.14.1)
Description / Remarks

Nantucket Historical Association catalog sheet, date unknown: "Johnson painted this scene of the interior of the old Round Top windmill on Nantucket in 1873; the work offers remarkable documentary evidence about the mill and the faltering island economy in the early 1870s, recording the forlorn gaze of the miller as well as the structural elements of the mill in the same year the mill was torn down."

Provenance
[Thos. E. Kirby & Co., New York, March 31–April 1, 1881, A Very Important Collection of Exceptional Paintings, in Oil and Water Colors, By Celebrated Artists of Europe and America, no. 101 (as A Falling Market)]
Robert Lang, New York, by 1944
Estate of Robert Lang, New York
[James D. Julia, Inc., Fairfield, Maine, July 27–30, likely 1999, The Robert Lang Estate Auction]
Shannon's Fine Art Auctioneers, Milford, Connecticut, May 11, 2000, lot 44 (as The Miller); did not sell
Private collection, 2000 (by purchase)
[Skinner, Inc., Boston, March 9, 2001, lot 270 (as "A Falling Market")]
Nantucket Historical Association, Nantucket, Massachusetts, 2001 (by gift)
Exhibitions
2011 Nantucket Historical Association
Nantucket Historical Association, Whitney Gallery at the Fair Street Research Library, Nantucket, Massachusetts, Eastman Johnson and His Contemporaries, Spring 2011–Fall 2012.
References
Thos E. Kirby & Co. 1881
A Very Important Collection of Exceptional Paintings, in Oil and Water Colors, By Celebrated Artists of Europe and America, in Part the Private Collection of H. L. Neumann, Esq, and Several Other Connoisseurs, Together with a Number of Fine Works Contributed by the Artists. New York: Thos E. Kirby & Co., March 31–April 1, 1881. Sale catalogue, p. 26, no. 101.
Crosby 1944
Crosby, Everett U. Eastman Johnson at Nantucket: His Paintings and Sketches of Nantucket People and Scenes. Nantucket, MA, 1944, pp. 19, 59, C.52, illus., as A Falling Market.
Simons 2013
Simons, Benjamin. "Eastman Johnson and His Contemporaries on Nantucket." AFAnews.com [Antiques & Fine Art Magazine], January 7, 2013.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 2000-09-15
Examination notes: Could not find a signature.
Hills opinion letter: October 4, 2000 view »
Hills opinion letter: November 1, 2000 view »
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Sylvia, John F.
Biography:

John F. Sylvia (life dates undetermined). Nantucket farmer and miller.  

Keywords
Record last updated August 17, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "John F. Sylvia, c.1873 (Hills no. 26.6.20)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=375 (accessed on May 5, 2024).