Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
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Photo: Courtesy of the Cincinnati Art Museum
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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. 26.1.20
1907 Sale no. 127
"Play Me a Tune"
Alternate titles: Play Me a Tune; Play Me Something
1880
Locale: Nantucket, Massachusetts
Oil on board mounted on Masonite
22 x 26 1/2 in. (55.9 x 67.3 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: E Johnson./1880
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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 
No. 127: "In a comfortable interior, where a music-loving woman has installed a large piano, a roughly dressed, middle-aged farmer has entered with his little girl, and evidently urges the woman of the house, who is just touching the piano keys, to play something to his taste. On the right the sunlight falls strongly upon the side of the piano, with scattered sheets of music and a bit of yellow drapery, and on the left is an old-fashioned Franklin stove, with shelves above which are filled with glass and china. The figures of the man and woman are in strong relief against a whitewashed wall with a painted wainscot below."
"Signed at the lower left, E. Johnson.
Height, 22 inches; length, 26 ½ inches."
[Annotation: “275.00 / Louis Ettlinger"]
"Signed at the lower left, E. Johnson.
Height, 22 inches; length, 26 ½ inches."
[Annotation: “275.00 / Louis Ettlinger"]
Markings
Label verso, on stretcher, upper center: Play me a tune. / Eastman Johnson / 65 W 55th -st / New York City
Vendor sticker, verso, on stretcher, center: CHRISTIE'S / RL487/2 / (barcode) / 25515244 / AMP
Inscribed verso, on frame liner, upper left to center left: #10659 CAG Framing 11/12
Inscribed verso, on frame liner, upper left to center left: #10159 CAG Framing 11/12
Label verso, on stretcher, upper left: CINCINNATI / (icon) ART / MUSEUM / Great Art In Eden Park / 953 Eden Park Drive Cincinnati, OH 45202 / 2007.70 / Eastman Johnson (American, b. 1824, d. 1906) / PLAY ME A TUNE / 1880 / oil on board mounted on masonite / Museum Purchase: The Edwin and / Virginia Irwin Memorial, the John J. / Emery Endowment, and the Mr. and Mrs. / Harry S. Leyman Endowment
Vendor sticker, verso, on stretcher, center: CHRISTIE'S / RL487/2 / (barcode) / 25515244 / AMP
Inscribed verso, on frame liner, upper left to center left: #10659 CAG Framing 11/12
Inscribed verso, on frame liner, upper left to center left: #10159 CAG Framing 11/12
Label verso, on stretcher, upper left: CINCINNATI / (icon) ART / MUSEUM / Great Art In Eden Park / 953 Eden Park Drive Cincinnati, OH 45202 / 2007.70 / Eastman Johnson (American, b. 1824, d. 1906) / PLAY ME A TUNE / 1880 / oil on board mounted on masonite / Museum Purchase: The Edwin and / Virginia Irwin Memorial, the John J. / Emery Endowment, and the Mr. and Mrs. / Harry S. Leyman Endowment
Provenance
Exhibitions
The Union League Club of New York, New York, Paintings by American Artists, January 14–16, 1897, no. 17, as Play Me a Tune.
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Fourth Carnegie International, November 2, 1899–January 1, 1900, no. 128, as Play me a Tune.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Spring 1900, no. 245, as Play Me a Tune.
The Union League Club of New York, New York, American Figure Painters, April 14–16, 1904, no. 17, as Play me a Tune, owner Eastman Johnson.
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, as Play Me a Tune.
The Union League Club of New York, New York, Eastman Johnson Retrospective, June 6–July 5, 1974.
Museum of the City of New York, New York, Dressing for a New York City Childhood, March 16–September 16, 2001.
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, The Art of Sound: Four Centuries of Musical Instruments, June 16–September 2, 2012.
References
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. 127, as "Play Me a Tune".
"Eastman Johnson Sale." American Art News 5, no. 20 (March 2, 1907), p. 3, as "Play Me a Tune".
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, pp. 265, 266.
Berman, Ann. "American Paintings Auction: ‘They Went Nuts’." Maine Antique Digest 35 (August 2007), 27-C, illus.
Hills Examination/Opinion
Examination date(s): 1971-07-21; 2007-03-23
Examination notes: 1971-07-21: Rustic man. Woman—head averted. Hands unfinished. Little girl. Bundled up. Highlights on objects in cabinet—candlestick on piano. Red curtain at right. Pasty white background.
2007-03-23: Floor boards and loose lines; highlights on piano legs—loose. Hands of woman—not articulated; can see slight red underneath. Girl: nice face—red wispy lines—tiny from nose. Looks like a fingerprint on sleeve of her dress. Highlights on brass tacks of the footstool. Fireplace to left. Highlights on andirons. Three shelves with glass vessels—nice highlights; photo on shelf. Woman; dark skirt—turquoise sleeves; cuffs dark brown (fur?). Green bowl at right on top of desk. Grey background—cracking—scumbled. Unusual lime green cloth.
2007-03-23: Floor boards and loose lines; highlights on piano legs—loose. Hands of woman—not articulated; can see slight red underneath. Girl: nice face—red wispy lines—tiny from nose. Looks like a fingerprint on sleeve of her dress. Highlights on brass tacks of the footstool. Fireplace to left. Highlights on andirons. Three shelves with glass vessels—nice highlights; photo on shelf. Woman; dark skirt—turquoise sleeves; cuffs dark brown (fur?). Green bowl at right on top of desk. Grey background—cracking—scumbled. Unusual lime green cloth.
Manter, Nathan H.
Keywords
- Subject matter
: - Stoves »
Record last updated September 5, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. ""Play Me a Tune", 1880 (Hills no. 26.1.20)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=382 (accessed on May 1, 2025).