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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
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Photo: Courtesy of the Columbus Museum, Georgia
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26.1 Nantucket Genre—Indoors
In June 1869 Johnson married Elizabeth Buckley of Troy, New York, and the following summer he and his wife and their baby, Ethel, went to Nantucket, Massachusetts for the season. Johnson responded enthusiastically to Nantucket, which seemed to be filled with characters and activities that appealed to him, and the couple returned to the island each summer. Beside painting genre scenes of men, women, and children both indoors and outside, Johnson launched a major theme—the cranberry harvest—a time in the fall when the whole community turned out to pick the wild cranberries ripening in the bogs of Nantucket. Johnson made at least eighteen studies before crafting his major painting, The Cranberry Harvest, which was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1880. —PH
Hills no. 26.1.21
Baur no. 96
The Fifer and His Son
Columbus Museum title: The Earnest Pupil
Alternate titles: An Earnest Pupil; An Earnest Pupil (The Fifers); The Earnest Student; The Fifers
1881
Locale: Nantucket, Massachusetts
Oil on artist board
26 1/8 x 22 1/8 in. (66.4 x 56.2 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson 1881
Description / Remarks
Hills opinion letter, 1995: "In An Earnest Pupil the young boy is learning to play the flute from an older man, whose ragged old coat and cap suggest, perhaps, a veteran of the Civil War, even though his coat and cap are brown, rather than the usual blue."
Labels
Verso label: Dalzell Hatfield/New York/Galleries/Los Angeles
Provenance
[Artists' Fund Society, New York, January 16–17, 1882, no. 33 (as The Fifer and his Son)]
William Macbeth, Inc., New York, by 1940
Dalzell-Hatfield Galleries, Los Angeles
John D. Graham, New York
Private collection, 1982–1995
[Sotheby's, November 29, 1995, lot 133 (as An Earnest Pupil (The Fifers)]
Spanierman Gallery, New York, 1995–1998
The Columbus Museum, Georgia, 1998 (by purchase)
Exhibitions
1882 Artists' Fund Society
Artists' Fund Society, New York, January 16–17, 1882, no. 33, as The Fifer and His Son, likely owner Eastman Johnson.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. 96, b/w illus., Pl. XXXIII, as An Earnest Pupil.2004 Southeastern Art Museum Directors Consortium
Southeastern Art Museum Directors Consortium, Atlanta, Tales from the Easel: American Narrative Paintings from Southeastern Museums, circa 1800–1950, February 8–April 11, 2004. (Eldredge 2004). Traveled to: Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Georgia, February 8–April 11, 2004; Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Florida, April 25–July 11, 2004; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, September 14–December 12, 2004; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas, January 16–April 10, 2005.2014 Columbus Museum
Columbus Museum, Columbus, Georgia, Two Republics: 17th Century Dutch & 19th Century American Art for the Common Man, October 15, 2014–January 11, 2015.References
Art Journal 1882
"Art Notes." The Art Journal (London) (1882), p. 61, as The Fifer and His Son, "Artists' Fund Exhibition. …Eastman Johnson has done nothing better in a long time than ‘The Fifer and his Son,' whose solid technical qualities and pleasantly modulated color serve to express the intentions of the old man, and the wondering query in the boy's face, as he gazes up the fife to see whence the music comes. No artist tells the story better than Mr. Johnson, and yet no one makes his art of more value in itself."Walton 1906
Walton, William. "Eastman Johnson, Painter." Scribner's Magazine 40 (September 1906), Frontispiece, illus.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. 52, 64, no. 96, as An Earnest Pupil.Magazine Antiques 1982
Barridoff Galleries advertisement. The Magazine Antiques (New York) (May 1982), as The Earnest Student.Douglass 1999
Douglass, Julie M. "Lifetime Exhibition History." In Eastman Johnson: Painting America, by Teresa A. Carbone and Patricia Hills. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications, 1999. Exhibition catalogue, p. 263, as The Fifer and His Son.Columbus 2003
American Art in the Columbus Museum. Columbus, GA: Columbus Museum, 2003, no. 28, illus.Eldredge 2004
Eldredge, Charles C., with contributions by Charles Thomas Butler, William Underwood Eiland, Reed Anderson, et al. Tales from the Easel: American Narrative Paintings from Southeastern Museums, circa 1800–1950. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2004. Exhibition catalogue (2004 Southeastern Art Museum Directors Consortium), no. 36.Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1983-03-01; 1995-10-09
Examination notes: 1983-03-01, Wigmore Fine Arts: Sgd. L.R. ~1881/E. Johnson Note face: 1) Choppy strokes on face 2) Light on the side of the fingers (cf. Cranberry paintings) 3) Strong outline on ear and on edge 4) Blue along highlights on boots 5) Very brushy and free at bottom and right 6) Turquoise shirt on boy 7) Flowers on ledge in R background. L background—a tankard, dimly seen with highlights. 8) Burnt sienna (glazing) in background. 25 1/2 x 22 1/2"
1995-10-09: Highlights on nails on soles. Lines along boot—nice blue highlights on boot. Boy and piccolo—Hunter's hat - worn coat. Flower at right. Tankard holding them. Behind boy's head—a tankard. Maybe infilling.
1995-10-09: Highlights on nails on soles. Lines along boot—nice blue highlights on boot. Boy and piccolo—Hunter's hat - worn coat. Flower at right. Tankard holding them. Behind boy's head—a tankard. Maybe infilling.
Keywords
- Subject matter:
Record last updated May 27, 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 Fifer and His Son, 1881 (Hills no. 26.1.21)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=376 (accessed on April 29, 2024).