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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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Exhibitions
The Union League Club of New York, New York, Art Exhibition at the Monthly Meeting, January 1880, no. 35, as
Robert Ratliff.
Nantucket Historical Association, Whitney Gallery at the Fair Street Research Library, Nantucket, Massachusetts, Eastman Johnson and His Contemporaries, Spring 2011–Fall 2012.
References
Worth, Henry B., and Helen B. W. Worth. Henry B. and Helen B. W. Worth papers, 1887–1948, Book XIV. 1887–1948. Nantucket Historical Association, p. 12
.
French, Edgar. "An American Portrait Painter of Three Historical Epochs." World's Work (December 1906), p. 8323
.
Sharp, Benjamin. "Vanished Fleet." Atlantic Monthly (August 1907).
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. 71, no. 253, as
Robert Ratliffe.
Crosby, Everett U. Eastman Johnson at Nantucket: His Paintings and Sketches of Nantucket People and Scenes. Nantucket, MA,
1944, pp. 16-17, 53, no. C.39, as
Robert Ratliff.
Philbrick, Nathaniel. Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602–1890. Nantucket, MA:
Mill Hill Press,
1994.
Jehle, Michael A., ed. Picturing Nantucket: An Art History of the Island with Paintings from the Collection of the Nantucket Historical Association. Nantucket, MA:
Nantucket Historical Association,
1999.
Simons, Benjamin. "Eastman Johnson and His Contemporaries on Nantucket." AFAnews.com [Antiques & Fine Art Magazine],
January 7, 2013.
Hills Examination/Opinion
Examination date(s): 1997-06-09
Examination notes: Verso: canvas top and left painted around edges .Thin painting on right side. Coarse—scumbling on fingers—a dash of creamy white defines cuff. Knuckles articulated beautifully—not fussy—right amount of strokes. Ruddy complexion. White handkerchief with red lines. Red tie. Blue grey eyes—ooking off to right. Right eye "milky" per Michael Jehle, curator of NHS.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Ratliff, Robert
Biography: Robert Ratliff (1794–1882). Born in Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1794, Ratliff served with the Royal Navy and participated in the burning of Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812. In 1815, he was aboard H.M.S. Northumberland, under command of Sir George Cockburn, when the British transported Napoleon Bonaparte to St. Helena [Exhibition Label from Eastman Johnson and His Contemporaries, 2011–2013, Whitney Gallery]. “Shipwrecked on Nantucket in 1820, Ratliff never returned to England. He joined several whaling voyages, married Judith Robinson (1790–1871), and later had a business as a rigger on the downtown waterfront. When this business burned in the 1846 fire, Ratliff secured a position in town government” [NHA website].
Keywords
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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 April 26, 2025).
