Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, Project Manager and Co-Author
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Photo: Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association
26.6 Nantucket Portraits and Types

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

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Hills no. 26.6.17
Baur no. 253
Robert Ratliff
Alternate titles: Portrait of Robert Ratliff; Robert Ratliffe
c.1879, December 17
Oil on canvas
30 x 24 1/2 in. (76.2 x 62.2 cm)
Initialed lower right in red: E. J.; verso: Robt. Ratliff/Born Feb [ ? ] /1794/Went with Napoleon/to St. Helena/Shipwrecked on the Island of Nantucket/Dec. 20th 1820. Where he has/remained/to date, ever since Dec 17th 1879/Eastman Johnson
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Record last updated July 18, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Robert Ratliff, c.1879, December 17 (Hills no. 26.6.17)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=451 (accessed on May 1, 2025).