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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
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Photo: Yale University Art Gallery
Overall
Photo: Patricia Hills
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
⊠
26.2 Nantucket Genre—Outdoors
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. 26.2.5r
Baur no. 129
On the Hillside
c.1875–80
Locale: Nantucket, Massachusetts
Oil on paper board
15 1/2 x 21 3/4 in. (39.4 x 55.2 cm)
Initialed lower right: E. J. [according to Baur 1940; not visible during Hills examination, 2018]
Provenance
Thomas N. Metcalf, Boston, by 1940
Mary C. and James W. Fosburgh, by 1970
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1979 (by bequest)
Exhibitions
1937 Frazier Gallery
Frazier Gallery, New York, Eastman Johnson 1824–1906: Forerunner of Homer and Eakins, September–October 1937. (Hirschl 1937); (Frazier Gallery 1937a), no. 18, as On the Hillside.1946 John Nicholson Gallery
John Nicholson Gallery, New York, 1946, no. 24.1972 Whitney Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition, March 28–May 14, 1972. (Exhibition catalogue: Hills 1972a), no. 91, b/w illus., p. 81, as On the Hillside (did not travel). Traveled to: The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, June 7–July 22, 1972; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, August 15–September 30, 1972; Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, October 20–December 3, 1972.References
New York Sun 1937
"New Light on Eastman Johnson." New York Sun, September 18, 1937.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. 65, no. 129, as On the Hillside.John Nicholson Gallery 1946
Cover Exhibition of American Paintings. New York: John Nicholson Gallery, 1946, Cover, illus.Hills 1972a
Hills, Patricia. Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1972. Exhibition catalogue (1972 Whitney Museum), p. 81, no. 91, illus., as On the Hillside.Hills Examination/Opinion
Examination date(s): 1971-09-24; 2018-08-07
Examination notes: 1971-09-24: Took slide. Note sketch of girl on reverse in a woodland glade. Painting has darkened, but is all right. Greenish-brown hill, thin blue sky. Lady knitting in grey dress. Light hits cap and dress of girl. Red sash around waist. American flag in background, white light on face. Roundness of woman's face is shown; child, flat light and dark. Legs unfinished. Seated Woman and Standing girl. Strong contrasts of light and dark.
2018-08-07: A more sketchy version of the Colby College version. No details of the kite string, the kite in the sky, or the kite on the ground. Strong light and dark contrast on girl’s face which consists of a block of light pink and a block of brown. See detail of photo of the landscape at the lower left with the American flag. I read the landscape on which the figures stand as a hill to the left of which are a group of buildings facing an inlet with hills behind. In other words, it appears to be a cove at the lower left. Overcast day with brownish-colored patches of clouds. Could see no signature.
2018-08-07: A more sketchy version of the Colby College version. No details of the kite string, the kite in the sky, or the kite on the ground. Strong light and dark contrast on girl’s face which consists of a block of light pink and a block of brown. See detail of photo of the landscape at the lower left with the American flag. I read the landscape on which the figures stand as a hill to the left of which are a group of buildings facing an inlet with hills behind. In other words, it appears to be a cove at the lower left. Overcast day with brownish-colored patches of clouds. Could see no signature.
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Record last updated July 16, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "On the Hillside, c.1875–80 (Hills no. 26.2.5r)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=403 (accessed on May 2, 2025).