Catalogue Entry

No. 79: "This is a study of an old New England type which is now fast disappearing. An old man with a fringe of whiskers around his face, wearing an old-fashioned beaver hat, black coat and waistcoat, with a loose white tie, leans forward, resting his right hand upon an ivory-handled Malacca stick. His head is lowered, his eyes raised, and his pathetic wrinkled face suggests a life with more than the ordinary share of hardships."
"Signed at the lower left, E. J.
Height, 9 ½ inches; width, 6 inches."
[Annotation: “30.00/ Cogswell”]

Eastman Johnson estate/Mrs. Eastman Johnson, New York, 1906 (by bequest)

[The artist's estate sale, American Art Association, New York, February 26–27, 1907, no. 79 (as Captain Myrick)]

William Browne Cogswell, Syracuse, New York, husband of the artist's niece, Mary Naomi Johnson Cogswell (daughter of the artist's brother Reuben), February 27, 1907 (by purchase)

Cora Browning Cogswell, his wife, 1921 (by bequest)

Florence Pearl and Elizabeth C. Browning, Syracuse, New York, her sisters, 1936 (by bequest)

F. N. Bard, Chicago, by 1944

Present whereabouts unknown

King, Edward. "The Value of Nationalism in Art." The Monthly Illustrator 4, no. 14 (June 1895), p. 268, as The Oldest Inhabitant.

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. 79, as Captain Myrick.

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), pp. 48-49, 63, no. 65, as Captain Myrick.

Crosby, Everett U. Eastman Johnson at Nantucket: His Paintings and Sketches of Nantucket People and Scenes. Nantucket, MA, 1944, pp. 15, 42, no. C.24, illus., as Captain Myrick.