Catalogue Entry
Like many artists in the nineteenth century, Johnson often did paintings of “types” that are actually identifiable portraits. For example, the painting John F. Sylvia shows a Nantucket miller in his barn looking up from his account books to look out the window. Called at one time The Falling Market, the subject suggests a man perhaps assessing his position in the economy in the early years of the 1870s when a recession gripped the nation. —PH
Nantucket Historical Association website, accessed February 26, 2021: "Portrait of Captain Nathan H. Manter seated. He is wearing black tall hat and brown jacket over greenish vest. Cane in his right hand. Greyish background."
Captain Nathan H. Manter (1818–1897). “The most famous of the old Nantucket steam-ship captains, retiring from service in 1891, having been employed on Island steamers about forty years, thirty of which were on the Island Home” [Letter from Richard C. Kugler, Director, Whaling Museum, January 27, 1969, to Mr. W. Myron Owen]. Erroneously reported as killed by a whale in 1851 [1907 Sale Cat. no. 53, Captain Coleman].
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