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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Catalogue Entry
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26.5 Cranberry—Small Scenes
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. 26.5.8r
The Conversation
Alternate titles: After Cranberry Picking; Two Women in a Field
1879
Locale: Nantucket, Massachusetts
Oil on board
22 1/2 x 26 1/2 in. (57.2 x 67.3 cm)
Initialed lower right in oil: E.J.; scratched into surface, to left of initials: Sept 79
Description / Remarks
Everett U. Crosby, Eastman Johnson at Nantucket: His Paintings and Sketches of Nantucket People and Scenes, 1944, p. 13, quoting Addison Gallery: "It is suspected that a figure considerably larger than the two women to be seen in the picture exists as an underpainting beneath what is now the painted service [sic]. This picture has not been studied either with ultra-violet or infra-red photography]."
Kende Galleries sale catalogue, 1940: "Motif from Nantucket, showing two women talking on a beach, one leaning on a barrel with a basket of cranberries beside her on the ground. Pencil sketch on the back."
Provenance
[Kende Galleries, New York, May 1–2, 1940, Chinese and Japanese Works of Art, Eighteen Early Studies and Paintings by Eastman Johnson, no. 288 (as After Cranberry Picking)]
John Levy Galleries, New York, until 1942
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, 1942 (by purchase)
Exhibitions
1942 John Levy Galleries
John Levy Galleries, New York, Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, April 8–30, 1942. (John Levy Galleries 1942), no. 18, as The Conversation.1947 Century Association
Century Association, New York, The Century Association Centennial Exhibition, January 9–February 16, 1947.1953b AFA
American Federation of Arts, New York, Landmarks in American Art, 1670–1950, February 25–March 28, 1953.1956 Brooks Memorial Union
Brooks Memorial Union, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Seventy-Five Years of American Painting (Festival of American Arts), April 22–May 3, 1956.1956 Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Scope in Collecting [25th Anniversary Exhibition], October 19–December 24, 1956.1959 High Museum
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Collectors' Firsts, February 18–March 1, 1959.1960 University Art Galleries, University of New Hampshire
University Art Galleries, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, [Loan to Paul Creative Arts Center], October 7–November 13, 1960.1969 Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, The Works, November 7, 1969–February 22, 1970.1972 Whitney Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition, March 28–May 14, 1972. (Exhibition catalogue: Hills 1972a), no. 83, b/w illus., p. 94, as The Conversation. 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, 1972.1982 Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Winslow Homer and Friends, May 14–June 6, 1982.1990 Timken Art Gallery
Timken Art Gallery, San Diego, Eastman Johnson: The Cranberry Harvest, Island of Nantucket, April 15–June 24, 1990. (Exhibition catalogue: Simpson, Mills, and Hills 1990), no. 7, color illus., Pl. 7, as The Conversation. Traveled to: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, July 5–September 16, 1990; Yale University Art Museum, New Haven, Connecticut, September 29–December 9, 1990.1995 Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Eastman Johnson, September 5–October 15, 1995.1996 Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, 65 Years, Addison Gallery of American Art, April 13–July 31, 1996.1999 Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Sculpture in Context, April 17–July 31, 1999.1999 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, Eastman Johnson: Painting America, October 29, 1999–February 6, 2000. (Exhibition catalogue: Carbone and Hills 1999), no. 56, color illus., p. 99, as The Conversation. Traveled to: San Diego Museum of Fine Arts, San Diego, February 25–May 21, 2000; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, June 8–September 10, 2000.2000 Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Inside and Out: Scenes of American Life from the Addison Collection, September 26–December 31, 2000.2001a Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Explorations, April 7–July 31, 2001.2001c Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Explorations: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints in the Addison, September 4, 2001–January 13, 2002.2003a Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Conversations: A Collection in Dialogue, January 7–July 31, 2003.2004 Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Eye on the Collection: Copley to Hopper, December 21, 2004–June 12, 2005.2005 Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Eye on the Collection: West to Hopper, June 17–October 16, 2005.2006 AFA
American Federation of Arts, New York, Coming of Age: American Art, 1850s to 1950s, September 9, 2006–September 7, 2009.2007a Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Mix and Match: A Conversation between Paintings and Works on Paper, January 23–April 8, 2007.2007b Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, So Long, Farewell, April 7–July 31, 2007.2013 Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Eye on the Collection, April 27–July 31, 2013.References
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," as Two Women in a Field.Kende Galleries 1940
Chinese and Japanese Works of Art, Eighteen Early Studies and Paintings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kende Galleries, May 1–2, 1940. Sale catalogue, p. 38, no. 288, as After Cranberry Picking.New York Herald Tribune 1941
[unknown title]. New York Herald Tribune, May 18, 1941, illus.Art Digest 1942
"Johnson in Homey 19th Century Show." The Art Digest 16 (April 15, 1942), in reference to Levy Galleries April exhibition: "Simple incidents, such as At the Camp, Spinning Yarns and Whittling, A Sly Drink in Camp and Preparing Breakfast are brought realistically to life by Johnson's faultless brushwork and his keen insight into the lives of his nature-loving subjects. It is truly an American brand of people that Johnson portrays—vigorous, hard-working men and women who tramped and camped in the open, extracting sugar from trees and picking cranberries in marshy bogs."; p.18.John Levy Galleries 1942
Exhibition of Eastman Johnson. New York: John Levy Galleries, 1942. Exhibition catalogue (1942 John Levy Galleries), n.p. (3), no. 18, as The Conversation.Crosby 1944
Crosby, Everett U. Eastman Johnson at Nantucket: His Paintings and Sketches of Nantucket People and Scenes. Nantucket, MA, 1944, pp. 13, 29, no. C.11, illus., as The Conversation.Hills 1972a
Hills, Patricia. Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1972. Exhibition catalogue (1972 Whitney Museum), p. 94, no. 83, illus., as The Conversation.Simpson, Mills, and Hills 1990
Simpson, Marc, Sally Mills, and Patricia Hills. Eastman Johnson: The Cranberry Harvest, Island of Nantucket. San Diego, CA: Timken Art Gallery, 1990. Exhibition catalogue (1990 Timken Art Gallery), n.p., Pl. 7, illus., as The Conversation.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. 99, no. 56, as The Conversation.Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1970-10-28
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 Conversation, 1879 (Hills no. 26.5.8r)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=429 (accessed on May 2, 2024).