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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
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Photo: Charles P. Russell Collection, Deerfield Academy
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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
Hills no. 26.6.2
Baur no. 53 / 1907 Sale no. 9
Zenas M. Coleman
1907 Sale title: Captain Coleman
c.1880
Locale: Nantucket, Massachusetts
Oil on board
10 1/4 x 8 1/2 in. (26 x 21.6 cm)
Initialed center left, at sitter's right shoulder: E. J.
1907 Estate Sale 
No. 9: "A study of the head of a typical sea captain with dark bushy hair and iron-grey beard and mustache. The head is nearly in full face and inclined upon the right shoulder, the eyes turned away, and the mouth half open, as if in conversation. The artist is said to have painted him when he was talking with a friend about a whale, the conversation being as follows:
CAPTAIN COLEMAN: “Manter, what did you think when you were in the whale’s jaws?”
CAPTAIN MANTER: “Wal, I thought he’d make about sixty berril.”
Signed at the left, E. J.
Height, 10 inches; width, 8 ½ inches"
[Annotation: “100.00/ Cogswell”]
CAPTAIN COLEMAN: “Manter, what did you think when you were in the whale’s jaws?”
CAPTAIN MANTER: “Wal, I thought he’d make about sixty berril.”
Signed at the left, E. J.
Height, 10 inches; width, 8 ½ inches"
[Annotation: “100.00/ Cogswell”]
Markings
Verso: Captain Coleman Nantucket
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. 9 (as Captain Coleman)]
William Browne Cogswell, Syracuse, New York, husband of the artist's niece, Mary Naomi Johnson Cogswell (daughter of the artist's brother Reuben), February 26, 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)
Robert C. Vose, Boston, Massachusetts, 1941
Mrs. Lucius D. Potter, Greenfield, Massachusetts, by 1944 until 1960
Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, Massachusetts, Charles P. Russell Collection, 1960 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, [possibly, as Captain Coleman].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. 9, as Captain Coleman.American Art News 1907b
"Eastman Johnson Sale." American Art News 5, no. 20 (March 2, 1907), p. 3, as Captain Coleman.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. 53, as Captain Coleman.Crosby 1944
Crosby, Everett U. Eastman Johnson at Nantucket: His Paintings and Sketches of Nantucket People and Scenes. Nantucket, MA, 1944, p. 16, C.32, as Captain Coleman.Deerfield Academy 1969
The Charles P. Russell Collection. Deerfield, MA: Deerfield Academy, 1969, p. 62, illus.Douglass 1999
Douglass, Julie M. "Lifetime Exhibition History." In Eastman Johnson: Painting America, by Teresa A. Carbone and Patricia Hills. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications, 1999. Exhibition catalogue, p. 266 [possibly, as Captain Coleman].Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1971-05-29
Examination notes: Soft quality. Oil and pencil varnished. Cream-colored background. Pencil lines on collar. Pencil outline mouth. Cf. with Edwina Booth. Damage on tip of nose. Shallow eyes. Photo shows greater contrast than exists. See description in Sale Cat.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Coleman, Zenas M.
Biography:
Captain Zenas M. Coleman (1815–1878). Whaling ship captain. According to Michael Harrison, Nantucket Historical Association, Coleman was “the last man to command a whaling voyage from Nantucket. In 1876 he became keeper of the Quaise Asylum (poor house), where Johnson met retired sailor and rigger Robert Ratliff, likely among others.”
Related work
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Coleman, Zenas M.
Keywords
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- Occupations:
- Subject matter:
Record last updated February 8, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Zenas M. Coleman, c.1880 (Hills no. 26.6.2)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=455 (accessed on April 20, 2024).