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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: Annmary Brown Memorial Collection, Brown University Library
[ 26.1 Nantucket Genre—Indoors ]info
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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

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Hills no. 26.1.7
Baur no. 61
A Glass with the Squire
Alternate titles: possibly The Old Squire; A Dram with the Squire; A Drink with the Squire; A Glass with the 'Squire; Drink with the Squire; The Glass with the Squire
1880
Locale: Nantucket, Massachusetts
Oil on canvas
30 1/2 x 23 1/2 in. (77.5 x 59.7 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson, 1880
John Hay Library, Brown University, Annmary Brown Memorial Collection (C-1702)
Description / Remarks

Crosby, 1944, p. 13: "Map on wall is inscribed, Nantucket. It has been stated that Capt. Baxter posed for the Squire, that John Fealey, an Irishman, posed for the farmer; although it has also been claimed that he was Jim Folsom." [The latter identification is correct; as noted by Baur, p. 51, it was provided by Johnson's niece Mrs. Edmonds.]

Baur 1940, p. 62: "An almost precisely identical version, which has not been located, is reproduced in William Walton, "Eastman Johnson, Painter," Scribner's, vol. 40, 1906, p. 271."

American Art Association sale catalogue, March 15–16, 1906: "An old gentleman in his old-fashioned dining room is standing by the sideboard, a glass of sherry in his hand, in which action he is imitated by a coachman standing near, who has apparently been invited to refresh himself after a long drive. The interior, with its mahogany furniture, corner cupboard and other characteristic objects, suggests a New England dwelling of superior type, and recalls the days when hospitality of this sort was not uncommon."

 

Provenance
[Possibly Artists' Fund Society, New York, February 12–13, 1880 (as The Old Squire)]
George N. Curtis, by 1880 until at least 1885
Mrs. Eliza M. Curtis
[American Art Association, New York, March 15–16, 1906, Sale of the Estates of the Late Mrs. Eliza M. Curtis, New York City and Mr. J. W. Brown with additions from Mrs. Lee W. Haggin, New York, no. 150 (as A Drink with the Squire)]
Rush Christopher Hawkins, by 1907
Brown University Library, Annmary Brown Memorial Collection, Providence, Rhode Island, before June 1907
Exhibitions
1880a Century Association
Century Association, New York, January 10, 1880, [possibly, as A Glass with the Squire].
1880 Artists' Fund Society
Artists' Fund Society, New York, February 12–13, 1880, [possibly, as The Old Squire, likely owner Eastman Johnson].
1880a Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Loan Collection of Paintings, April–October 1880, no. 231, as A Glass with the 'Squire, owner Geo. N. Curtis.
1885a Union League Club of New York
The Union League Club of New York, New York, Exhibition of Paintings at the Monthly Meeting, April 9, 1885, no. 53, as A Glass with the Squire, owner Geo. N. Curtis.
1906a Union League Club of New York
The Union League Club of New York, New York, Modern Paintings, January 11–13, 1906, no. 14, [possibly, as A Drink with the Squire].
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. 61, b/w illus., Pl. XXVI, as A Glass with the Squire.
References
Art Interchange 1880
"American Art News." Art Interchange 6, no. 4 (February 18, 1880), p. 31 [possibly].
New York Times 1880
"Sale of Pictures for the Artists' Charitable Association." New York Times, February 12, 1880, as A Glass with the 'Squire.
Benjamin 1882
Benjamin, S. G. W. "A Representative American." The Magazine of Art 5 (November 1882), p. 489.
AAA 1906
Catalogue of Modern Paintings Belonging to the Estates of the Late Mrs. Eliza M. Curtis, New York City, and Mr. J. W. Brown, Brooklyn, with Additions from Mrs. Lee W. Haggin, New York. New York: American Art Association, March 1906. Sale catalogue, n.p., no. 150, as A Drink with the Squire.
Beckwith 1906
Beckwith, Carroll. "Eastman Johnson—His Life and Works." Scribner's Magazine 40, no. 2 (August 1906), p. 254, as The Glass with the Squire.
Illustrated London News 1906
Illustrated London News (December 1, 1906).
Providence Sunday Journal 1907
Providence Sunday Journal, June 30, 1907, "…one of Eastman Johnson's very best. It is a finished picture, with every detail wrought clearly and affectionately…The squire's face, especially, is a triumph of American portraiture. Gen. Hawkins, it is understood, secured this admirable work after many years of unsuccessful effort."
Baker 1913
Baker, C. H. Collins. Paintings, in Oil & Water Colours by Early & Modern Painters, Collected by Rush C. Hawkins, Catalogued by C. H. Collins Baker and Deposited in the Annmary Brown Memorial at Providence, Rhode Island. London: Printed for the owner by the Medici Society, 1913, no. 91, as A Glass with the Squire.
Kennedy Galleries 1920
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Charcoal Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1920. Exhibition catalogue (1920 Kennedy Galleries), p. 12, addendum “Paintings by Eastman Johnson" [possibly, as A Glass with the Squire].
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), p. 62, no. 61, Pl. XXVI, as A Glass with the Squire.
Crosby 1944
Crosby, Everett U. Eastman Johnson at Nantucket: His Paintings and Sketches of Nantucket People and Scenes. Nantucket, MA, 1944, p. 13, C.14, as A Glass with the Squire.
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. 106, fig. 47, as A Glass with the Squire.
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, pp. 263, 264, possibly 266, as A Glass with the Squire.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): Probably early 1970s (Hills was considering it for inclusion in 1972 exhibition)
Examination notes: O/c damaged. Rt. man: black coat, brown trousers, brown hat. Left man: green coat, brown hat. Turkey on floor—head showing. L.R. "E. Johnson/1880". Map of Nantucket in background, flag. Patchy spots on wall. Caricatured face.
Related work
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Keywords
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Photo: Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
A Glass with the Squire [etching by James David Smillie]
1886
Etching
Image: 8 3/8 x 6 11/16 in. (21.2 x 17 cm)
Plate: 10 1/4 x 10 3/4 in. (26 x 27.3 cm)
Sheet: 36 1/8 x 28 1/8 in. (91.7 x 71.4 cm)
Upper left in plate: J.D. Smillie/Aqua Fortis/1886.; lower right in plate: E. Johnson./1880.; signed lower right, below plate, in graphite: James D. Smillie
National Gallery of Art, Washington, District of Columbia, Reba and Dave Williams Collection, Gift of Reba and Dave Williams (2008.115.4469)

Also owned by: American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts (448193); The Brooklyn Museum, New York (1999.147); The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California (86.35.7); Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis (two impressions: P.5,836 and P.6,346); Nantucket Historical Association, Nantucket, Massachusetts (1998.0064.001); Princeton University Art Museum, New Haven, Connecticut (2009-76); Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Winterthur, Delaware (1978.0033)

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Record last updated December 29, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "A Glass with the Squire, 1880 (Hills no. 26.1.7)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=395 (accessed on April 26, 2024).