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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, MA, Project Manager

Catalogue Entry

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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. 26.6.4
Baur no. 59 / 1907 Sale no. 77
Charles H. Fishback
1907 Sale title: Captain Fishback
Nantucket Historical Association title: Portrait of Captain Fishback
Alternate title: Old Grouty Man
c.1873–80
Oil on cardboard
9 x 6 1/4 in. (22.9 x 15.9 cm)
Initialed lower left: E.J.
Description / Remarks

Nantucket Historical Society website, accessed February 24, 2021: "In this small study, Johnson portrays what is possibly the figure of Charles H. Fishback, who served as captain of the island steamer Gay Head toward the end of the nineteenth century. Though still an active mariner, Johnson presents Captain Fishback as a figure in retirement, seated slightly hunched over, leaning on his walking stick for support, with a huddled visage looming quietly under a quaint brown cap. The captain appears to reminisce about a life spent at sea, his gaze trailing off from a face set off by large ears and a bulbous, weathered nose. On the painting’s back, a note likely by Johnson, describes the subject as an 'Old Grouty Man'.”

1907 Estate Sale info
No. 77: "The half-length figure of a rugged old man, seated in an arm-chair, supporting both hands on his stick, his head in profile to the left and lighted from the upper right. He wears a coarse woolen cap and dull brown coat."
"Signed at the lower left, E. J.
Height, 9 inches; width, 6 inches"
[Annotation: “27.50 / Cogswell”]
Markings
Verso: Captain Fishbach [sic]

Inscribed on verso of frame, in lead pencil: Old Grouty Man
Provenance
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. 77 (as Captain Fishback)]
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)
John F. Douthitt, New York, by 1944
Victor D. Spark, New York, until May 29, 1957
Roy Davis, New York
Private collection, until 1999
East End Gallery, Nantucket, Massachusetts, until December 1999
Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association, Nantucket, Massachusetts, December 1999 (by purchase)
Nantucket Historical Association, Nantucket, Massachusetts, January 2000 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1960 Everson Museum
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, American Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Davis of New York City, 1960, no. 10.
References
AAA 1907b
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. 77, as Captain Fishback.
Baur 1940
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. 62, no. 59, as Captain Fishback.
Douthitt Gallery 1940
Eastman Johnson: The Keystone Artist. New York: Douthitt Gallery, 1940. Exhibition catalogue (1940 Douthitt Gallery), no. 22.
Crosby 1944
Crosby, Everett U. Eastman Johnson at Nantucket: His Paintings and Sketches of Nantucket People and Scenes. Nantucket, MA, 1944, p. 14, no. C.22, as Captain Fishback.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1971-03-23
Examination notes: Small and oily. Brown background. Greenish coat. One hand over the other. Suggestion of a cane. Greenish cap. White patches on face. Description in Sale Cat.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Fishback, Charles H.
Biography:

Charles H. Fishback (1850–1920). “...Captain on the local steamboats. His life dates suggest we have the painting dated incorrectly or that it is a different Capt. Fishback. There is no other Nantucket Capt. Fishback, however, as Charles H. was born in Ohio (some sources say Indiana) and there is no record of his father, John, ever came to Massachusetts. Charles H. lived in New Bedford much of his life, but would have been at Nantucket frequently during the period he worked on the boats, 1880s to 1907” [National Historical Association].

Keywords
Record last updated July 29, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Charles H. Fishback, c.1873–80 (Hills no. 26.6.4)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=454 (accessed on March 29, 2024).